Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions his Department has had with the Competition and Markets Authority on updating the designations under the Controlled Land Order to help promote fair competition in the grocery sector.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Competition and Markets Authority has a general duty to monitor the effectiveness of the Controlled Land Order. This includes regularly assessing whether any grocery retailers meet the criteria for designation that are outlined in the Order. The CMA is in the process of carrying out its latest assessment. Government will continue to work closely with the CMA following its assessment to determine the best way forward.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to enforce compliance among social care providers based (a) in the UK and (b) abroad that fail to pay (i) wages and (ii) pension contributions.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The law is clear: if you are a UK-based worker, you are entitled to rights under UK employment law, regardless of where your employer is based.
HMRC enforces the minimum wage on behalf of DBT. It considers all complaints from workers and where it finds underpayment orders employers to pay workers their money back, and a penalty to government. Since the minimum wage was introduced, the Government has overseen the repayment of over £186 million to 1.5 million workers, issued over £100 million in financial penalties and completed over 90,000 investigations.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has powers to take compliance action against employers who are found not to be paying employer pensions contributions, including, where necessary, through court action. The Pensions Ombudsman will consider complaints from individuals and award compensation when appropriate.
The Employment Rights Bill will create the Fair Work Agency to bring together employment rights enforcement. This body will provide better support for employers to comply with the law and will have powers to take tough action against the minority who flout it.
The Government has committed to establishing a new Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector, empowering worker representatives and employer representatives to negotiate fair pay and terms and conditions in a regulated and responsible manner.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department carried out impact assessments prior to its decision to delay the implementation of the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act, which became law in May 2023, will require employers to pass all tips on to workers, without deductions.
The accompanying statutory Code of Practice laid before Parliament on 22nd April 2024, and the other measures in the Act, will be effective from 1st October 2024.
The implementation date for the Act was revised from 1st July 2024 to 1st October 2024 to ensure sufficient time for those affected by the changes to prepare.
The impacts of the new requirements were considered in the impact assessment prepared for the Act: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3197/publications.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled UK and Taiwan Enhanced Trade Partnership arrangement, published on 14 November 2023, whether she plans to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty with Taiwan.
Answered by Greg Hands
The UK’s longstanding policy on Taiwan has not changed: the UK has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan but a strong, unofficial relationship based on dynamic commercial, educational and cultural ties.
The Department for Business and Trade is currently working on an Enhanced Trade Partnership with Taiwan; currently there are no plans to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty with Taiwan.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data his Department holds on the number of subpostmasters in (a) Stockport constituency and (b) Greater Manchester who (i) were wrongfully convicted and (ii) left their jobs as a result of the flawed Horizon accounting system.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Government does not hold the data requested.
95 postmasters in England have had their convictions overturned to date. The Government will fast-track legislation to overturn the convictions of all those convicted in England or Wales.
Our focus is on ensuring that all those who lost their Post Office roles or experienced other losses as a result of the Horizon scandal receive the compensation they deserve.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has an industrial strategy for the retail sector.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The industry led Retail Sector Council is the key forum to address significant sector issues and define a strategic future for the retail sector. It aims to accelerate positive change, increase productivity, and ensure it remains robust and sustainable, continuing to provide good jobs and a beneficial service to consumers, communities, the economy.
In July 2023 the Council published a discussion paper ‘Retail – The Great Enabler’ exploring the value of and pressures on the sector. The Council is developing a strategic approach for retail that embraces several key areas including sustainability, labour and retail careers, cost of living pressures and impact on supply chains and high street regeneration and investment.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many staff from her Department are based in India.
Answered by Greg Hands
On 31 October 2023 there were 13 UK Based Staff and 90 Country Based Staff working for the Department for Business and Trade located in India.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to support pubs.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
We understand the many challenges pubs are facing. The Government is supporting pubs with business rates relief, the Brexit Pubs Guarantee, and help with energy costs. We are also working across Government to identify opportunities to ease regulatory and licensing burdens.
We continue to work with businesses, including members of the Hospitality Sector Council, to deliver our 2021 Hospitality Strategy, which aims to support the sector's recovery from COVID-19 and improve longer term resilience.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2023 to Question 197616 on Post Offices, whether her Department has (a) made an assessment of and (b) had discussions with relevant stakeholders on the future of the Crown Post Office branch in Great Underbank Stockport.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Government sets the parameters for Post Office to operate in and asks its management to be responsible for running the company day-to-day. Post Office therefore has the freedom to make commercial decisions regarding the composition of its network, providing it fulfils the Government-set access criteria, which ensure that, for example, 99% of the UK population lives within three miles of a post office.
Matters relating to individual post office branches are the responsibility of Post Office, not the Department for Business and Trade.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she plans to issue a waiver to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights in the context of the negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with the Republic of India.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
In negotiations with India, as with all our trading partners, the UK’s approach to intellectual property (IP) is to strike a balance between rewarding research, innovation and creativity, which can benefit all countries, whilst ensuring that medicines remain affordable and reflecting wider public interests, such as access to and use of IP on reasonable terms.
The UK considers the TRIPS Agreement as an essential tool to achieve this balance, including our support for flexibilities enshrined in the Agreement.