Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of a four day working week on productivity.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Department is following trials of the four-day working week closely but has not yet conducted a robust assessment of the impacts.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to encourage more new parents to take up shared parental leave.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Between February and April 2018, we ran a £1.5m paid for communications campaign to promote Shared Parental Leave and Pay to eligible parents. This was supported by the publication of revised tools and guidance which make it easier for parents to understand and access the scheme.
We ran a further campaign between February and April 2019 to maintain the high levels of awareness that we achieved in 2018 and are planning further communications activity for 2019/20.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to encourage employers to be more flexible in their employee working hours.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Through the Industrial Strategy, the Government is working to transform our economy and ensuring that everyone, whatever their background, can access and progress at work.
Flexible working can play an important part in helping businesses to improve their productivity and recruit and retain the best available talent. All employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer have the right to request flexible working. The Government is also considering a new duty on employers to be clear when advertising a job whether it is available on a flexible basis.
In addition, the Government, with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, has established the Flexible Working Taskforce to promote wider understanding and implementation of inclusive flexible work and working practices. The taskforce has developed a high-level business case for flexible working guidance on flexible recruitment and continues to promote more flexible hiring through the on going campaign “Happy to Talk Flexible Working”.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to encourage a better work-life balance in the UK.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Employees in the UK have a variety of different leave entitlements which can help them balance work with other commitments or interests. These range from short term leave to cover emergencies, through annual leave, to a range of entitlements to parental leave and pay. The Government is also considering new employment rights for carers.
In addition, the Government continues to support flexible working practices to help people manage their work other commitments. Employees with 26 weeks of continuous service have a right to request flexible working and we are considering a new duty on employers to be clear when advertising a job whether it is available on a flexible basis.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the number of women in senior roles at UK energy companies.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Government does not make assessments of the number of women in senior roles at UK energy companies, but alongside sponsoring the Hampton-Alexander Review on FTSE Women Leaders and promoting diversity in the energy sector, we support the work of POWERful Women which collates data on gender diversity in senior and middle management levels in the energy sector - which can be found at: http://powerfulwomen.org.uk/board-statistics-by-company/
Strong progress has been made in that the representation of women on FTSE 100 boards has increased from 12.5% in 2011 to 31.6% in May 2019 and among executive directors has doubled from 5.5% to 10.3% in the same period.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of rooftop solar panels deployed on domestic homes since the closure of the Feed-In Tariff scheme.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The number of domestic solar installations during April 2019 will be published by BEIS on Thursday 30 May using information from the MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) installation database. These are provisional numbers which are subject to revision in future publications.
Solar photovoltaic deployment statistics is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solar-photovoltaics-deployment.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to promote the retail industry through the Government's Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
At Autumn Budget 2018, my rt. hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the Future High Streets Fund, which aims to invest £675m in England to support local areas to develop and fund plans to make their high streets and town centres fit for the future. Autumn Budget also announced a cut in business rates by one third for the next two years for all retailers in England with a rateable value below £51,000, worth almost £1bn to retailers.
The industry-led Retail Sector Council has agreed its priority work areas for the next two years, focusing on: costs to business, skills and lifelong learning, employment protections, the circular economy, consumer protections, and retail and the Industrial Strategy.
A senior industry figure is leading each of these work groups and will bring proposals for action for both industry and government back to the Council for consideration. The Industrial Strategy workstream is led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and member of the Industrial Strategy Council, and will look at how the Industrial Strategy can work to the benefit of the retail sector.
As part of the Industrial Strategy, and following the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, the Government responded with the Good Work Plan, which will bring forward legislation to extend workers’ rights, including for people who work in the retail sector. This includes the introduction of new guidance to support the interpretation of holiday pay rules, as well as the biggest ever increase to the National Living Wage. An awareness campaign will be launched, targeted at both individuals and employers, to boost awareness and understanding to help ensure all workers are benefiting from their paid entitlement to leave. All these measures will improve the wages and working contracts of many of those working in the retail sector.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the 2018 Annual Report of the Committee on Fuel Poverty, what steps his Department is taking to respond to the recommendation for a new Clean Growth Fuel Poverty Challenge Fund.
Answered by Claire Perry
I am grateful of the advice from the Committee, which we are considering carefully as part of our plan to update the Fuel Poverty Strategy later in 2019.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of skilled workers in the construction industry.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table provides information about skills levels in the construction workforce in 2018.
|
|
|
Skill level | Number | Percentage |
High | 532,100 | 23% |
Upper Middle | 1,216,600 | 53% |
Lower Middle | 373,800 | 16% |
Low | 176,500 | 8% |
Total | 2,299,000 | 100% |
Data source: Annual Population Survey Jan-Dec 2018, extracted from NOMIS
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of young people training for a career in the construction industry.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and construction industry have agreed an ambitious Sector Deal which aims to transform the productivity of the sector, including measures to increase skills and apprenticeships. We are working with the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), Construction Innovation Hub and Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to identify the skills needed for the construction sector of the future and helping design the qualifications frameworks and training programmes that will enable firms to train the next generation of apprentices in these skills. A joint Government and industry commitment to develop 50 new construction apprenticeship standards by the end of 2018 has already been exceeded, with 82 new apprenticeship standards agreed.
Other measures include: a commitment to complete CITB’s reform programme by end 2019, to make it a more streamlined, responsive and effective organisation; an industry-led goal of increasing construction apprenticeship starts to 25k per annum by 2020; £34m investment in the Construction Skills Fund, to establish 20 onsite training hubs by 2020; an improved careers portal for the sector (through CITB’s GoConstruct), to help improve diversity of recruitment; work with industry to ensure sufficient high-quality work placements are available for the introduction of construction T Levels in 2020; and using public procurement to help drive investment in construction skills.