Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
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 impact of The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill on workplace (a) rights and (b) adjustments for people with disabilities.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill and the powers within it are not intended to remove workers’ rights and protections. The Bill is an enabling Act. The key measures, including the powers to preserve, revoke or replace, will provide UK (and devolved) ministers with the tools to review, amend or repeal their retained EU law in a way that is right for the UK and reflects the UK’s new regulatory freedoms.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department’s fuel poverty target numbers take into account the higher average energy costs and usage incurred by disabled people.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The fuel poverty target is to ensure that as many fuels poor homes as is reasonably practicable achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of Band C, by 2030. Its aim is to target energy efficiency support to low-income households.
The 2030 target does not include estimates of energy costs including what the energy costs will be for disabled people.
Progress against the target is reported on in the annual fuel poverty statistics, which can be found https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the level of support provided by energy suppliers to disabled customers through programmes such as benefit entitlement checks and debt write-off.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ofgem require energy suppliers to support disabled customers. This includes protection from disconnection during the winter, and the provision of additional support through a Priority Services Register. Ofgem monitors compliance with their rules protecting vulnerable consumers. Their most recent report is available at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/Ofgem%20Consumer%20Protection%20Report%20Autumn%202021_Final.pdf.
Under the Warm Home Discount scheme, Ofgem provides a breakdown in their annual reports of the Industry Initiatives supporting fuel poor and vulnerable households through measures that include benefit entitlement checks and debt write-off. The 2020-2021 report is available at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/warm-home-discount-annual-report-scheme-year-10.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
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 decision to reduce support for disabled people through the Energy Company Obligation scheme, whether an assessment has been made of the impact on the finances of disabled people affected by that change.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The current Energy Company Obligation scheme, ECO4, has been designed to focus support on households with the lowest incomes and alleviate fuel poverty. This will include households with disabled people on the lowest incomes. The scheme is designed to improve the energy efficiency of homes, through the installation of insulation or heating measures. Households benefitting from improvements could save an average of £300 per annum.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason the Post Office Ltd Annual Reports and Accounts 2020-21 have not yet been published.
Answered by Paul Scully
Post Office secured an extension for the filing of its Annual Report and Accounts for FY20/21 to 31 March 2022. I understand Post Office expect to publish their Accounts shortly.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Post Office Annual Reports and Accounts for 2020-21 will be published.
Answered by Paul Scully
Post Office secured an extension for the filing of its Annual Report and Accounts for FY20/21 to 31 March 2022. I understand Post Office expect to publish their Accounts shortly.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
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 UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2016 inquiry UK 2021 follow-up report published in December 2021, when he plans to being the consultation on default approaches to flexible working; on what date he expects that consultation will finish; and when he expects the next steps and recommendations to be published.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government started working on its follow-up report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2016 inquiry earlier this year. The flexible working consultation referred to in the report was published on 23 September and ran for 10 weeks until 1 December, receiving over 1,600 responses. The Government is now analysing these responses and will issue its response in due course.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many temporarily closed Post Office branches have been closed for (a) less than six months, (b) six months to a year, (c) one year and a day to two years and (d) longer than two years in (i) Scotland, (ii) Wales, (iii) Northern Ireland and (iv) each region of England as of 12 November 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
While Post Office Limited is publicly owned, it operates as an independent, commercial business. Therefore, details regarding the length of time Post Office branches have been closed in (i) Scotland, (ii) Wales, (iii) Northern Ireland and (iv) each region of England as of 12 November 2021, are an operational matter for Post Office Limited.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress his Department has made on meeting Post Office Access Criteria that (a) 90 per cent of the population are within one mile of the nearest Post Office branch and (b) 99 per cent of the population are within three miles of the nearest Post Office branch.
Answered by Paul Scully
POL operates the largest and most dispersed retail network in the UK, with more than 11,500 branches offering a portfolio of services across: mails & parcels, cash & banking, financial services, identity and telecoms markets.
Apart from during the pandemic when agreed waivers were in place, since 2013/14 Post Office has consistently met the access criteria and remains committed to meeting the access criteria and minimum branch numbers.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether there are legal protections in place to prevent employers from mandating people who are severely immunocompromised from having to return to their workplace after the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends in September 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
There are a range of legal protections which could be engaged where it is difficult for an employee to return to work as a result of an underlying health condition. But the law does not distinguish specifically between particular health conditions.
An immunocompromised person may be considered to have a disability and benefit from protections under the Equality Act which include the duty on an employer to make reasonable adjustments. A disability under the Equality Act is defined as a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. A reasonable adjustment can include letting someone work somewhere else.