Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to ensure the availability of positive mental health initiatives including (a) on-site mental health resources, (b) training for employers in mental health first aid and (c) helplines for the construction industry.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Considerable investment has been made in improving mental health in the construction sector. Since 2018, the Construction Industry Training Board has supported 950 employers and invested over £1.5m in mental health projects, including training mental health first aiders, and providing awareness training and other resources.
The Construction Leadership Council is working in partnership with the Mates in Mind charity, the University of Warwick, and firms in the construction industry, to identify the underlying factors leading to poor mental health, and how to tackle these.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether (a) his Department and (b) the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service issue guidance on exemptions to trade union recognition.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Guidance on the trade union recognition scheme is at Gov.UK. This sets out that the scheme is available to unions where the workplace has 21 or more workers. Therefore the smallest workplaces that have 20 or less workers not in scope of the scheme.
The Central Arbitration Committee has also published detailed guides to the parties to enable both unions and employers to understand the recognition process.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information (a) his Department, (b) the Certification Officer and (c) the Central Arbitration Committee hold on (i) successful and (ii) unsuccessful trade union recognition ballots in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information from the Central Arbitration Committee in relation to the outcome of statutory trade union recognition ballots is provided below for each of the last 10 years:
| Successful | Unsuccessful |
2015 | 4 | 4 |
2016 | 5 | 1 |
2017 | 5 | 4 |
2018 | 7 | 6 |
2019 | 6 | 2 |
2020 | 2 | 0 |
2021 | 8 | 4 |
2022 | 5 | 1 |
2023 | 3 | 5 |
2024 | 4 | 5 |
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) lowering the required member percentage from 10% to 2% for the statutory trade union recognition ballot process, (b) removing the likely majority support at the application stage and (c) removing the 40% support threshold at the recognition ballot stage on the number of recognised trade unions.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has published a final stage impact assessment on strengthening workers’ rights to access, recognition and representation. This is available at: Impact assessment: Strengthening workers’ rights to trade union access, recognition and representation
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much funding her Department has provided to help support small and medium-sized enterprises to export in each of the last 15 years; and how much funding his Department has made available for this purpose in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Given changes within the department and across government over the last 15 years further information on export specific funding cannot be provided without breaching the disproportionate cost limit.
The cost of support for SMEs to export over the previous 7 years is 2018/19 at £47.1m, 2019/20 £45.9m, 2020/21 £45.0m, 2021/22 £45.6m, 2022/23 £49.3m, 2023/24 £44.2m and 2024/25 £31.8m. This includes funding for grant programmes that have now concluded such as the Tradeshow Access Programme, UK Tradeshow Programme, Overseas Business Network initiative, and Internationalisation Fund.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Employment Rights Bill on the ability of employers to contact a (a) full-time and (b) part-time employee outside of their (i) normal and (ii) condensed working hours.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The right to switch off is not part of the Employment Rights Bill. It will be delivered through a statutory Code of Practice which will be the subject of a full public consultation in due course. The consultation will give interested parties the opportunity to comment on the specifics of the code and its approach to tackling work or work-related contact outside normal working hours. The responses will inform the final content of the Code.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent guidance his Department has provided on when Departments should publish a regulatory impact assessment when bringing forward a Bill to Parliament.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The general requirement for departments to make available the final impact assessment of a government bill introduced to Parliament is set out in the Guide to Making Legislation, published by the Cabinet Office, and affirmed in the Better Regulation Framework Guidance, published by the Department for Business and Trade.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether there is an embargo on spare parts for foreign cars.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has not placed a blanket embargo on spare parts for foreign cars.
All information on trade sanctions, embargoes and restrictions, including trade controls and transit controls can be found on GOV.UK [here].
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information was provided to him on the public finances prior to taking office; whether he has received any additional information since taking office; and what his policy is on the provision of information to prospective future governments prior to elections.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The process for access talks is set out in the Cabinet Manual. Access talks are initiated with permission from the Prime Minister of the day and are confidential.
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place between Cabinet ministers and officials is not shared publicly.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
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 support high street post office counter services.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Post Office is an essential service in communities across the country. The Government is committed to finding ways to strengthen the Post Office, through consulting with sub-postmasters, trade unions and customers. This will include supporting the development of new products, services and business models that will help reinvigorate the high street.