Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley 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 her Department has made of trends in the level of staff shortages in the hospitality sector, and if he will have discussions with representatives from the Hospitality Rising campaign in helping to addressing these shortages.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
We are in regular dialogue with the sector and are aware of the recruitment challenges facing businesses. The Hospitality Sector Council is actively looking at this issue, including working directly with the Hospitality Rising Campaign through our Hospitality and Tourism Skills Board.
The ONS publishes data on staff vacancy rates in the sector. This was most recently estimated at 7.2%, and this rate has fallen for the past 4 months.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley 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 he is taking to prevent the sale of unsafe electrical appliances on online marketplaces.
Answered by Paul Scully
Product safety legislation places obligations on manufacturers, importers and distributors to ensure that consumer products, including electrical goods, are safe before they are placed on the UK market. This applies equally to products sold online and offline.
However, Government recognises that – alongside its benefits – e-commerce has brought significant challenges. This is one of the reasons that the Government is currently reviewing the product safety framework. A Call for Evidence to inform the review ran last year, and the Government Response is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/uk-product-safety-review-call-for-evidence.
A consultation, including proposals to tackle unsafe products sold online, will be published later this year.
Alongside this, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) leads a national programme of regulatory action to tackle the risks from unsafe and non-compliant goods sold on online marketplaces. In 2021, 12,500 products were removed from supply due to OPSS interventions.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it is Government policy to maintain the Universal Service Obligation for Royal Mail, including the obligation to deliver mail six days a week.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government remains committed to ensuring that the universal service obligation remains affordable and accessible to all users, and that it is financially sustainable in the longer-term. We have no plans to change the obligation to deliver mail six days a week.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What assessment his Department has made of the effect of state aid limits on the distribution of covid-19 support for businesses in the hospitality and retail sectors.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government is keeping under close review the impact of subsidy control rules on the ability of businesses to access Covid-19 support and will publish new guidance as and when the circumstances require it.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish guidance to clarify whether overnight sleep-in shifts are exempt from the national living wage rate; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
The Government has published guidance to help employers meet national minimum wage legislation. The calculating the minimum wage document sets out on page 29 the guidance relating to National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) and sleeping time.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will issue a call for evidence from industry and other stakeholders seeking suggestions on Government interventions and policies to further develop the energy efficiency and low carbon energy markets; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is in regular contact with industry and other stakeholders on energy efficiency and low carbon policies. At the Summer Budget in 2015 the Government announced that it would review the business energy efficiency tax landscape and consider approaches both to simplify the current framework and improve its effectiveness in driving energy efficiency and decarbonisation. The Government launched a consultation in September to seek evidence and set out policy proposals. This consultation closed in November 2015 and a full analysis of the responses is now underway. A formal response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the potential contribution to energy efficiency and low carbon energy from buildings markets to (a) improving infrastructure and (b) implementing the Government's (i) long-term economic plan, (ii) obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008 and (c) commitments to relieve fuel poverty.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is huge potential for buildings to contribute to our goals on reducing carbon, tackling fuel poverty, keeping bills down and driving economic growth. The UK’s housing stock accounts for around 30% of our energy consumption and a further 20% from non-domestic buildings. Collectively, once electricity emissions are taken into account, buildings make up around one third of our greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing building emissions is therefore key to meeting our Climate Change Act commitment of an 80% green-house gas emissions reduction by 2050.
Government is acting to harness this potential. A reformed domestic supplier obligation from April 2017, which will run for 5 years, will upgrade the energy efficiency of over 200,000 homes per year tackling the root cause of fuel poverty. Our extension of the Warm Home Discount to 2020/21 at current levels of £320m per annum will also help vulnerable households with their energy bills.
Alongside this, we have set new minimum standards in law which will, from April 2018, require privately rented buildings to reach a standard of at least energy efficiency band E before they can be let.
In 2014 a total of 96,510 businesses were active in the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy sector, employing 232,500 full-time equivalent (FTEs) employees generating £45.3 billion of turnover. Over half of these businesses work in the production and supply of energy efficiency products.