Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to recent figures released by the Government Insolvency Service which found that 2002 companies were declared insolvent last month, what plans they have to support companies facing monetary challenges and mitigate the rise in insolvencies.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
While insolvencies have risen in absolute terms, when this is compared to the number of active firms in the economy, the proportion of liquidations is well below previous periods of high insolvency numbers. The Government continues to help businesses with measures such as the Energy Bills Discount Scheme; the frozen business rates multiplier for 2023/24 resulting in bills that were 6% lower; increased 75% business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure properties; £1.6bn Transitional Relief, protecting ratepayers facing bill increases and the Supporting Small Business scheme that provides over £500 million in support.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled DWP's ministerial meetings, July to September 2023, published on 14 December 2023, if he will list the (a) organisations and (b) individuals who attended the departmental roundtable on 25 September 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There was no departmental roundtable on the 25th September 2023.
The previous Minister for Disabled People, Health & Work met with a number of stakeholders separately on the 25th September 2023 to discuss the Disability Perceptions Campaign Launch.
These organisations are listed here under ‘DWP's ministerial meetings, July to September 2023’.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of (a) businesses and (b) workers in the hospitality sector that will be affected by proposed increases to the minimum salary requirements for a skilled worker visa in (i) the UK and (ii) Scotland.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Analytical work has been undertaken across Government to support decision making in this process, and an Impact Assessment will be developed in due course.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 18 of the Defence Equipment and Support Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, what recent progress has been made on the automation of key control processes.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Since July 2023, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) has fully delivered robust, auditable, automated solutions in key control process areas such as declarations of interest and gifts and hospitality. It has extended the control portfolio of processes to also include digitised travel and subsistence checks and a more robust, digitally automated financial letter of delegation process. Collectively, DE&S has increased automation to allow the operation of 114 live automation processes and, to date, has delivered over 3,400,000 automated transactions, saving its workforce over 550,000 hours of automated benefit through transactional or workflow processing. Work to build on this progress is ongoing.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the transparency data entitled DCMS: Ministerial hospitality, 1 July to 30 September 2023, published on 15 December 2023, who gifted the tickets on 9 July 2023; and what the event was.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The tickets were gifted from Silverstone, and the event was the British Grand Prix.
This information was provided in the Secretary of State’s transparency return through the normal declaration process. However, due to a technical error it was not published on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether her Department issues guidance to the hospitality sector on the statutory entitlement of visually impaired people to access premises with their guide dogs.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published clear guidance on this matter. This is part of its work to ensure that businesses and service providers - including those in the hospitality sector - are aware of their legal responsibilities towards disabled customers with assistance dogs (including guide dogs) and are equipped with the knowledge to ensure the Equality Act 2010 is complied with.
The guidance, available on the EHRC website, makes it clear that businesses and service providers should allow assistance dogs access to buildings where dogs would normally not be permitted, whenever this is reasonable.
‘Assistance dogs: A guide for all businesses’
www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/assistance-dogs-a-guide-for-all-businesses.pdf
‘Take the lead: A guide to welcoming customers with assistance dogs’
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with hospitality businesses in Wales on commercial energy costs.
Answered by David T C Davies - Secretary of State for Wales
My officials and I regularly meet with businesses across Wales, including those in the hospitality sector, to discuss a variety of issues.
The Government provided an unprecedented package of support of £7.4 billion through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) which ended on 31 March 2023, shielding businesses and saving some around half of their wholesale energy cost.
The EBRS was replaced by the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS), which provides support to all eligible non-domestic energy users paying the highest energy prices starting from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Since the scheme was introduced, wholesale energy prices have now fallen significantly, and inflation has fallen from its peak of 11.1% to 4%.
In addition, at Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced that it is freezing Climate Change Levy rates for 2025-26 to continue achieving CCL’s environmental objectives without increasing the impact to businesses’ energy bills.
The UK Government is providing further support to the hospitality sector by freezing alcohol duty until August 2024, and increasing the new Draught Relief duty from the initially proposed 5% to 9.2%. In addition, in England, we have extended the 75% relief on business rates available to hospitality, retail and leisure businesses. I am concerned about the impact of the cut to non-domestic rates relief for hospitality businesses proposed by the Welsh Government in their recent draft budget.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Payment Systems Regulator on ATM interchange fees.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Treasury Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-giftsand-overseas-travel
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to support the long-term viability of high streets.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This Government is fully committed to supporting our high-street businesses and communities.
Thanks to my Hon friend’s hard work, provisions in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act for High Street Rental Auctions (HSRA) give local authorities new powers to force landlords to rent out vacant units in high streets. HSRAs will be backed by £2 million funding announced as part of the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, to help communities and local businesses take control of empty properties, covering the cost of refurbishing properties, the auction process and council fees.
The High Street Accelerator pilot programme will incentivise and empower local people to work together to develop ambitious plans to tackle vacancy and anti-social behaviour, and work on long-term regeneration plans to future proof their high streets.
The Government’s Long-Term Plan for Towns has identified 55 towns to develop the first wave of Town Partnerships, backed by £1.1 billion overall, to drive ambitious plans to regenerate local towns across the UK over the next decade.
Long-term investment also includes £2.35 billion of Town Deals and over £830 million of Future High Streets Funding across 170 high streets, town centres and local communities in England.
At the last autumn statement, the Chancellor announced a business rates support package worth £4.3 billion over the next five years, freezing the small business multiplier and extending the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure scheme.
I want to thank my Hon friend for her work, and I look forward to continuing to work with her on levelling up projects in Bishop Auckland and our Long-Term Plan for Towns in Spennymoor.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to reduce the alcohol content in drinks on sale in retail settings.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 2019 publication, Advancing our Heath: Prevention in the 2020s, the Department is working with industry to deliver a significant increase in the availability of no- and low-alcohol products. Current guidance for the use of low-alcohol descriptors, published by the Department in 2018, sets out that “alcohol-free” products should have an alcohol by volume (ABV) content of no more than 0.05% and “low-alcohol” products should have an ABV of no more than 1.2%.
In support of the commitment to increase the availability of these products across retail and hospitality settings, the Government published a consultation on updating this guidance in September 2023. A response will be published in due course.
The Government has also delivered on its commitment to review the outdated and complex alcohol duty system and introduced the biggest reform of alcohol duties in 140 years. As of 1 August 2023, all alcohol is now taxed by strength. This is helping to target problem drinking by taxing products associated with higher alcohol-related harm at a higher rate of duty.
The new system incentivises the production and consumption of lower strength products by introducing a reduced rate of duty for products of a lower ABV. Additionally, all draught products below 8.5 per cent ABV sold in containers of 20 litres or more now receive a reduced rate of duty, incentivising consumption of lower strength products in pubs.