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Written Question
General Practitioners: Energy
Friday 23rd September 2022

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

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 make it his policy to cap the price of energy for GP surgeries.

Answered by Graham Stuart

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme for non-domestic customers was announced on 21 September and details can be found at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers

Written Question
Local Enterprise Partnerships
Monday 13th January 2020

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if she will make it her policy to abolish LEPs.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) continue to play an important role in providing a business voice to inform investment decisions and drive economic growth. Government continues to support LEPs in fully implementing the recommendations in the ‘Strengthening LEPs’ report, published in July 2018, in order to maximise this role.

Written Question
Flexible Working: Carers and Mothers
Tuesday 2nd July 2019

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps the Government has taken to ensure that (a) mothers and (b) people with primary care responsibilities have access to flexible working.

Answered by Kelly Tolhurst

The 2014 revision to the Right to Request Flexible Working provided all employees with the same access to flexible working, seeking to eliminate the view that flexible working is only for parents/carers.

The Government is keen to ensure that the existing “right to request” legislation continues to have the desired effect and has committed to review its impact in 2020. Government has also announced that it will consult on asking employers to consider whether a job can be done flexibly, and to make that clear when advertising.

In parallel, the Government is looking to work with employers on a voluntary basis. We have established a Flexible Working Taskforce with representatives from across Whitehall, from key organisations like Carers UK and Working Families, the TUC and key business groups to promote wider understanding and implementation of flexible working practices.

Written Question
Business: Stevenage
Tuesday 14th May 2019

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to increase support for businesses in Stevenage.

Answered by Kelly Tolhurst

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are playing a vital role in driving forward economic growth across the country, helping to build a country that works for everyone. That’s why by 2021 Government will have invested over £12bn through the Local Growth Fund, allowing LEPs to use their local knowledge to get all areas of the country firing on all cylinders.

The Government will have invested £160m Growth Deal funding in Hertfordshire by 2021, and the LEP was allocated £16.2m Growing Places Funding. The LEP has prioritised spending on science, research and innovation, developing skills, cultivating world-leading sectors and supporting businesses to start up and grow. In Stevenage, this has included allocating £1.2m to the Airbus Foundation Discovery Space.

Since 2012, the Start-Up Loans Programme has delivered 71 loans in Stevenage, worth £487, 289 to small businesses.

Written Question
Conditions of Employment
Thursday 9th May 2019

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

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 has taken to increase workers rights.

Answered by Kelly Tolhurst

On 17 December 2018 we published the Good Work Plan, which sets out our vision for the future of the labour market and our ambitious plan for implementing the recommendations arising from the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices.

Since publishing the Good Work Plan, we have passed legislation that means:

  • All workers receive a day one statement of rights setting out leave entitlements and pay;
  • An maximum additional penalty that Employment Tribunals can use quadrupling from £5,000 to £20,000, helping ensure workers are protected from employers who show malice, spite or gross oversight;
  • The ending of the Swedish Derogation, the legal loophole that enables some firms to pay agency workers on less than permanent staff, which will benefit up to 120,000 agency workers;
  • New agency workers will receive a key facts page before signing up with an agency, providing them with greater clarity, particularly around their pay; and
  • The threshold for an information and consultation request being reduced from 10% to 2% of employees, meaning a stronger voice in the workplace.

In delivering the Good Work Plan. we will also:

  • Legislate to make improvements to the clarity of employment status tests to reflect the reality of modern working relationships;
  • Bring forward proposals for consultation on creating a new, single labour market enforcement agency to better ensure that vulnerable workers are more aware of and can exercise their rights, and that businesses are more supported to comply with the law;
  • Enforce holiday pay for vulnerable workers;
  • Introduce a right to request a more predictable and stable contract;
  • Launch a new scheme to name and shame, for the first time, employers who fail to pay employment tribunal awards.