Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to reply to the letters of 29 July 2020 and 24 August 2020 and telephone call of 7 November 2020 on the Small Breweries' Relief scheme, raised on behalf of his constituent Mr Dave Turner.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
A response was sent to the Member on 15 September 2020 and a further copy has been sent by email.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the potential for further increases in the employment rate in the UK economy over the next (a) two, (b) four and (c) six years.
Answered by Simon Kirby
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) publish forecasts for the employment rate for all those aged over 16. This differs from the main Office for National Statistics measure which looks at those aged between 16 and 64.
In the November 2016 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the OBR projected the 16+ employment rate to stand at the highest annual rate since 1974 in 2016, at 60.5%, before falling to 60.1% in 2018, 59.9% in 2020 and 59.7% by 2022Q1.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on wages for people in semi and unskilled jobs of changes to the proportion of non-UK nationals entering the adult workforce.
Answered by Simon Kirby
The evidence on the impact of immigration on wage rates is mixed, although a 2015 working paper by the Bank of England found an increase in the immigrant to native ratio has a small negative impact on average British wages, particularly within the semi/unskilled services occupational group.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the effect on (a) per capita GDP and (b) overall productivity of changes in the migrant share of the adult population.
Answered by Simon Kirby
As noted in the 2012 report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), the empirical literature suggests that the impact of migration on aggregate productivity may be mixed and heavily dependent on the type of migrant coming to the UK. Migrants may increase productivity either through a simple ‘batting average’ effect if they work in higher productivity roles relative to the average for non-migrants, or through increasing the productivity of UK workers through greater specialisation and knowledge transfer. In this report, the MAC established the key role played by skilled migrants in raising productivity. Further, the 2014 MAC report, ‘Migrants in low-skilled work’, found low skilled migrants have a neutral impact on UK-born employment rates, GDP per head and productivity.