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820699

registered interest
date	11/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Urban Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the cumulative effect of the closure of (a) banks, (b) post offices, (c) building societies and (d) pubs on the sustainability of high streets.
tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
uin	122117
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/01/2018 answer text <p>The Government does not make assessments of the impact bank, post office, building society branch, or pub closures have on the sustainability of high streets. While the decision to close a branch remains a commercial judgement for individual banks and building societies, the impact on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible.</p><p>The industry’s Access to Banking Standard, launched in May 2017, commits banks and building societies to ensure personal and business customers are better informed about branch closures and the reasons for them closing, along with the options they have locally to continue to access banking services, including specialist assistance for customers who need more help. The Access to Banking Standard is monitored and enforced by the independent Lending Standards Board.</p><p>99% of banks’ personal and 95% of banks’ business customers are now able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches. At Autumn Budget 2017, the then Economic Secretary to the Treasury wrote to the Post Office and UK Finance to ask them to raise public awareness of the banking services available at the Post Office for individuals and SMEs.</p><p>Since 2010, Government has invested over £2billion in to the Post Office network, with a further £370m announced on 20 December. This has led to the most stable number of branches in the network for decades.</p><p>The Post Office continues to meet its access criteria with 99.7% of the total population living within 3 miles of a Post Office.</p><p>The Government recognises the importance of pubs to communities and the high street. To support pubs and local industries, and recognising that alcohol duties already rose by inflation earlier this year, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced at Autumn Budget 2017 that he was freezing all alcohol duties. Pubs play an important role in local communities and help promote responsible drinking. Freezing beer duty rates this year helps pubs: the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) estimate around two thirds of the alcohol sold in pubs is beer. At Spring Budget 2017, the Chancellor announced a package of support for pubs in England with their business rates. This provided a £1,000 discount to all pubs with a rateable value of less than £100,000. This scheme was extended by an additional year into 2018/19 at Autumn Budget.</p><p>Additionally, the Chancellor brought forward the planned switch in the indexation of business rates from RPI to CPI by two years to 2018. This will benefit all businesses on the UK high street and represents a cut in business rates every year from April 2018. In total, the switch from RPI to CPI is worth £4.1bn by 2023.</p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 19/01/2018 10:04:56 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths previous answer version 34625 answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

820889

registered interest
date	11/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Palmer and Harvey: Insolvency
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Insolvency Service has received an application from the administrators of Palmer & Harvey for financial assistance with the payment of redundancy pay to staff.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	122307
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2018 answer text <p>Eight companies in the Palmer &amp; Harvey group entered into administration on 28 November 2017. A further company entered into administration on 15 December 2017. Matthew Callaghan, Ian Green and Zelf Hussain of PWC were appointed joint Administrators.</p><p>Around 2,500 staff were subject to immediate redundancies with around a further 450 retained to assist the Administrators in managing the business to an orderly closure.</p><p>Administrators are not required to apply for financial assistance in such cases. Where an employer enters into formal insolvency, with subsequent job losses, and there is a shortfall of redundancy, notice, wages, holiday pay and pension contributions to employees, the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service is in place to process those claims and make payments in accordance with the statutory limits.</p><p>As at 12th January 2017, 2,384 claims had been received, out of an expected total of 2,959. Approximately 80% of claimants received some form of payment before Christmas. Where claims are outstanding we are proactively liaising with the claimant and/or the Administrators to obtain the necessary information and aim to process the claim with 48 hours of receipt of the necessary information.</p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 16/01/2018 16:30:21 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

820916

registered interest
date	11/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Consumers: Protection
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to repeal the incorporation in UK law of the Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation after the UK leaves the EU.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Gill Furniss
uin	122334
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2018 answer text <p>The purpose of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill is to provide a functioning statute book on the day we leave the EU, and ensure that it is for our sovereign Parliament (and in some cases for the devolved legislatures) to make any future changes.</p><p>The Bill will convert all directly-applicable EU legislation - that is regulations, decisions and tertiary legislation - as it applies in the UK immediately before exit, into domestic law and will preserve all the laws which have been made in the UK to implement EU obligations.</p><p>Any future changes will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.</p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 16/01/2018 14:39:53 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	4571 label Biography information for Gill Furniss

819801

registered interest
date	10/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Energy: Prices
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons his Department's impact assessment on the Draft Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill does not include a clear description of what constitutes conditions for effective competition.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	121873
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/01/2018 answer text <p>The draft Bill requires Ofgem, as the expert regulator, to carry out a review into whether the conditions for effective competition are in place. The review must consider, among other things, the progress in installing smart meters and it will be for Ofgem to determine the relevant factors in carrying out that review.</p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 15/01/2018 16:06:06 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

819811

registered interest
date	10/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Employment: Disadvantaged
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she is taking to ensure that people who live in socially deprived areas are aware of their employment rights.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	121883
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/01/2018 answer text <p>The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) provides free and impartial information and advice to employers and employees on all aspects of workplace relations and employment law. Where Acas identifies a potential complaint in relation to National Minimum Wage (NMW), agency workers, working time, gangmasters and agricultural wages rights, it will forward calls to the relevant enforcement body.</p><p> </p><p>Additionally, the Government does work to support and promote use of this service, and increase workers’ awareness of their rights. For example, the Government is developing a targeted communications campaign to ensure workers are aware of their rights to the NMW. This will follow the £1.75 million campaign we ran over Spring 2017 to achieve the same ends.</p><p> </p><p>To increase accessibility, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate have also worked with the Romanian and Bulgarian Embassies to produce a leaflet in these respective languages, detailing what the minimum standards workers should expect from employment businesses and agencies are. The same leaflet is also available in English and provides contact numbers for agency workers to raise concerns or complaints. HMRC also carry out risk based enforcement using risk modelling and intelligence that they receive to enforce the NMW on behalf of workers who may not be aware of their rights, and are therefore less likely to complain.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 17/01/2018 13:21:25 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

819872

registered interest
date	10/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Parental Leave and Parental Pay
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the letter of 21 December 2017 from Minister for Small Businesses, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility, whether his Department intends that evaluation of Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheduled to take place in 2018 will include mothers who are eligible for Maternity Allowance.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff West
tabling member printed	Kevin Brennan
uin	121944
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/01/2018 answer text <p>We have committed to evaluate the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme in 2018 and the intention is that the evaluation will include mothers who are eligible for Maternity Allowance.</p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 15/01/2018 16:59:20 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	1400 label Biography information for Kevin Brennan

819904

registered interest
date	10/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Groceries Code Adjudicator
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2017 to Question 117048 on Groceries Code Adjudicator, for what reasons the Department has not published its response to its consultation on extending the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator, which closed in January 2017, and when his Department plans to publish its response.
tabling member constituency	Bristol East
tabling member printed	Kerry McCarthy
uin	121976
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/01/2018 answer text <p>The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy continues to work closely with the Department for Environment, Food &amp; Rural Affairs on the Call for Evidence on extending the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator. We have carefully analysed all responses received and considered potential solutions to issues identified by respondents. We will be publishing a full Government response to the Call for Evidence shortly.</p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 15/01/2018 16:34:22 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	1491 label Biography information for Kerry McCarthy

819967

registered interest
date	10/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Furs: Labelling
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that consumers are provided with sufficient information on product labels to identify real animal fur in products sold in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	122039
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2018 answer text <p>The Department ensures that there are robust protections in place for consumers. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) requires information given to consumers to be accurate and not misleading. The Regulations prohibit commercial practices, such as labelling, which contain false or misleading information, or which omits material information that a consumers needs to make an informed decision.</p><p> </p><p>In addition the EU regulation on the labelling and marking of textile products (EU Regulation 1007/2011) requires that the presence of non-textile parts of animal origin in textile products, such as leather, beads, pearls and fur, must be clearly labelled in such a way that is not misleading and that the consumer can understand. The labelling of products containing such materials – even in small quantities – must be labelled or marked with the phrase “Contains non-textile parts of animal origin” whenever they are made available on the market.</p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 16/01/2018 11:56:31 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

818970

registered interest
date	09/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Post Offices: Recruitment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the timetable is to recruit new post-masters to the 776 sub-post offices which have temporarily closed.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Gill Furniss
uin	121647
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/01/2018 answer text <p>This is an operational matter for the Post Office. The Government sets the parameters in which Post Office operates – including its geographic reach and the key services it offers – and then allows the Post Office to operate as an independent commercial organisation within those parameters. As such, the Government does not play a role in the day-to-day operational responsibilities of the company. This includes decisions regarding the recruitment of postmasters to any Post Office, whether a Directly Managed Crown branch or one that is operated on the Post office by a franchise partner.</p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 15/01/2018 17:00:00 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	4571 label Biography information for Gill Furniss

818997

registered interest
date	09/01/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Energy: Housing
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the average consumption of domestic energy and gas per household was for (a) those households in receipt of the Warm Home Discount and (b) other households in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Hampstead and Kilburn
tabling member printed	Tulip Siddiq
uin	121674
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/01/2018 answer text <p>The Department does not hold domestic energy consumption data for households in receipt of Warm Home Discount.</p><p>For the purposes of understanding fuel poverty, domestic energy consumption is modelled from survey data using assumptions about heating levels needed to ensure a household achieves an adequate level of warmth as opposed to data based on actual consumption.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Burton answering member printed Andrew Griffiths question first answered 15/01/2018 16:56:55 answering member 3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths
tabling member	4518 label Biography information for Tulip Siddiq