Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) football and (b) cricket pitches there are in England.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
According to Sport England’s Active Places database, there are 53,665 grass football pitches in England. This encompasses adult football, junior football 11 a-side, junior football 9 a-side, mini soccer 7 a-side and mini soccer 5 a-side pitches. Furthermore there are also 3,013 artificial full-size grass pitches and 4,419 small-sided artificial grass pitches in England.
There are 9,057 grass cricket pitches in England.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 proposed changes in the regulation of zero hours contracts on average (a) staffing and (b) other costs for SMEs.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The potential impact of the proposed changes through the right to guaranteed hours, the right to advance notice of shifts and the right to payment for short notice shift cancellation, curtailment or movement are set out in the Government’s Impact Assessments. These are published at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that private hire drivers (a) are not exploited and (b) receive (i) appropriate pay and (ii) equal employment rights.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
All employers must comply with their legal obligations to ensure those they engage receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled.
Entitlement to employment rights is determined by an individual’s employment status. Private hire drivers can fall under any one of the three statuses: employee, limb (b) worker, or self-employed.
We have committed to consult on moving towards a simpler two-part framework that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed.
If individuals believe they are not being afforded the rights they are entitled to, they can contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service for free and impartial advice.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that those who exploit immigration marriage fraud to gain entry to the UK are (a) identified and (b) removed from the country.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government takes abuse of the spouse and partner immigration routes very seriously and is clear that family migration must be based on a genuine and subsisting marriage or relationship.
The marriage referral and investigation scheme, introduced across the UK under the Immigration Act 2014, requires that all proposed marriages and civil partnerships where one or both parties could gain an immigration advantage from it are referred to the Home Office. Under this scheme, where we have reasonable grounds to suspect a sham relationship, the marriage notice period will be extended to allow for further investigation, and for enforcement or casework action to be taken where appropriate.
The Home Office focuses its efforts on disrupting facilitators as well as prosecuting individuals involved in sham marriages and civil partnerships and will consider refusal or cancellation of permission to stay, or removal, following any determination that a relationship is a sham.
Part 9 of the Immigration Rules provides specific grounds for the refusal or cancellation of permission to enter or stay on the basis of any involvement in a sham marriage or sham civil partnership, providing a more robust and consistent framework against which immigration applications are assessed, and reflecting the seriousness of this type of abuse.
Where appropriate and proportionate, enforcement and removal action will be taken. The removal pathways following a sham marriage determination include administrative removal under Section 10 (of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999) and deportation on public policy or conducive grounds.