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Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Contracts
Wednesday 8th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

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 proportion of invoices his Department paid to small and medium-sized enterprises within five days in the 2021-2022 financial year.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

BEIS publishes quarterly information on the overall percentage of all invoices (including SME invoices) paid within 5 to 30 days on GOV.UK. The BEIS payment performance for the financial year 2021-22 is that 87.24% of invoices were paid within 5 days.

The Procurement Bill currently progressing through the Commons contains a Clause (68) that will require all contracting authorities to publish specified information relating to invoice payments. BEIS will ensure that it continues to publish payment information and will comply with the new requirements once they are implemented.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Contracts
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the average number of months' notice given for new tender opportunities through the BEIS Commercial Pipeline was in each calendar year since 2019.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

This information is not held centrally and can only be provided at disproportionate cost. However, BEIS has published a Bi-Annual copy of its pipeline on Gov.uk for the past two years, which provides at least an 18 month forward look of potential procurements.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Contracts
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many and what proportion of his Department's tenders were awarded by direct award in the financial year 2021-2022.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

BEIS awarded 17 direct award contracts in financial year 2021/2022, which equates to 5% of contracts awarded by the Department.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Contracts
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

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 policy paper entitled BEIS small and medium enterprises (SME) action plan: 2022 to 2025, published on 26 January 2023, what recent estimate his Department has made of when the facility to capture feedback from suppliers at the end of a competitive tender process will be introduced.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The current planned timeline would be to implement the feedback mechanism in quarter one of financial year 2023/2024.


Written Question
Products: Safety
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many enforcement actions the Office for Product Safety and Standards took against (a) Amazon, (b) Ebay, (c) AliExpress and (d) Wish in 2022.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

During 2022 the Office for Product Safety and Standards has undertaken a programme of enforcement activity relating to the availability of unsafe and non-compliant products from online platforms including Amazon, eBay, AliExpress and Wish. This includes safety alerts and withdrawal notices as well as activity at the Border to prevent unsafe products being placed on the UK market, test purchasing and assessment of high-risk products such as small electrical goods, toys containing magnets and button batteries and personal protective equipment.

This has resulted in 308 notifications on the Product Safety Recalls and Alert system and specific Product Safety Alerts on angle grinder chainsaws, hot hairbrushes and baby self-feeding devices.


Written Question
Small Businesses
Monday 6th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his timetable is for publishing the Government's Enterprise Strategy.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government is focused on driving economic growth by encouraging enterprise, tackling poor productivity, and getting more people into better paid jobs right across the country. My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer set out the Government’s plans on 27 January, ahead of the Spring Budget due on 15th March. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will set out further actions on scaling-up business growth in due course.


Written Question
Consumer Goods: Safety
Monday 6th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2022 to Question 105438 on Consumer Goods: Safety, when his Department plans to publish the product safety review.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Product Safety Review consultation is currently being finalised and will be published shortly.


Written Question
Growth Hubs
Monday 6th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

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 (a) small business awareness of and (b) small business satisfaction with the network of Growth Hubs.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government values the work of the network of 38 Growth Hubs in England both in directly providing advice and support to businesses of all sizes and sectors, and in joining up wider business support activities locally. Local Enterprise Partnerships reported that in 2021/22 Growth Hubs engaged with 2.2 million individuals and businesses in total, and reported an average customer satisfaction rate of 89% amongst users of their services.


Written Question
Products: Safety
Monday 6th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many enforcement actions taken by the Office for Product Safety and Standards concerned products available to purchase on third party online marketplaces in 2022.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

During 2022 the Office for Product Safety and Standards has undertaken a programme of enforcement activity relating to the availability of unsafe and non-compliant products from online platforms. This includes safety alerts and withdrawal notices as well as activity at the Border to prevent unsafe products being placed on the UK market, test purchasing and assessment of high-risk products such as small electrical goods, toys containing magnets and button batteries and personal protective equipment.

This has resulted in 308 notifications on the Product Safety Recalls and Alert system and specific Product Safety Alerts on angle grinder chainsaws, hot hairbrushes and baby self-feeding devices.


Written Question
Products: Safety
Monday 6th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many businesses the Office for Product Safety and Standards have taken prosecution action against as a result of (a) serious and (b) recurrent non-compliance with product safety regulations in each year since 2018.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Since April 2018 the Office of Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has taken a range of enforcement action including 65 recall notices and 21 withdrawal notices. In the last financial year (2021/22), OPSS published unsafe product alerts for 500 products and risk-based product safety checks at the border resulted in some two and a half million unsafe items being refused entry. In addition to these measures, prosecutions are undertaken where it is proportionate to the alleged offence and focused on removing the risk to the consumer. No prosecutions for unsafe items have been concluded but they will be published by OPSS in its annual report.