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156813

	registered interest
	date	19/11/2014
	answering body	Women and Equalities
	answering dept id	31
	answering dept short name	Women and Equalities
	answering dept sort name	Women and Equalities
	hansard heading	Business: Females
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Ministers for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to address the gender pay gap in the financial sector and to increase female representation at board level in FTSE100 companies; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Hackney North and Stoke Newington
	tabling member printed	Ms Diane Abbott
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	215168
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/11/2014 answer text <p>The gender pay gap in the UK is at an historic low. In the financial &amp; insurance activities sector, the overall gender pay gap is (including both part time and full time workers) down from 44.3% in 2011 to 40.2% in 2014. However, the sector still has a completely unacceptable pay gap of around twice the national average, so more needs to be done. We are strongly encouraging more girls to consider maths and science-related careers through the “Your Life” initiative. Women in the sector will also benefit from the many other measures we are taking to drive the pay gap down further, including extending flexible working to all employees; introducing Shared Parental Leave; and bringing in new childcare tax provisions. We are also providing free software to companies for them to calculate any pay gaps and to analyse the causes of them.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The UK takes a voluntary approach increasing the numbers of women on boards. We are making progress with the Lord Davies business-led initiative to achieve 25% women on boards by 2015 and have moved from 12.5% to nearly 23% of women on the boards of the top 100 companies since 2011. For the first time, every board of Britain’s top 100 companies has at least one woman. Government will continue to work closely with investors, regulators, head hunters and businesses to implement his recommendation of 25% women on boards by 2015.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 26/11/2014 16:39:26 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
	tabling member	172 label Biography information for Ms Diane Abbott

101304

	registered interest
	date	28/10/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Minimum Wage
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many employers in (a) Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency, (b) the London Borough of Hackney, (c) London and (d) England that have broken the national minimum wage law have been (i) prosecuted and (ii) named since the revision to the national minimum wage law came into effect on 1 October 2013.
	tabling member constituency	Hackney North and Stoke Newington
	tabling member printed	Ms Diane Abbott
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	212281
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2014 answer text <p>The Government has named 30 employers under the revised Naming and Shaming. Between them they owed workers a total of over £50,000 in arrears and have been charged financial penalties totalling over £24,000. Details of these employers can be found on the original press notices (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-gets-tough-with-employers-failing-to-pay-minimum-wage" target="_blank">28 February 2014</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-employers-who-fail-to-pay-minimum-wage" target="_blank">8 June 2014</a>), including the town in which the employer is based. However, these organisations may employ staff or have offices or other operations in other geographical locations.</p><p>No employers have been prosecuted under the National Minimum Wage Act since October 2013.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 04/11/2014 14:09:07 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
	tabling member	172 label Biography information for Ms Diane Abbott

157049

	registered interest
	date	20/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Part-time Employment: Females
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to provide (a) assistance and (b) guidance for employers to help them provide flexible and high quality part-time work for women with young children; and if he will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Hackney North and Stoke Newington
	tabling member printed	Ms Diane Abbott
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	215367
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/11/2014 answer text <p>Flexible working is central to how the Coalition Government sees employment in the future. From 30 June this year, following a full consultation with businesses on how best to do so, we extended the right to request flexible working to all employees.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has also made it easier for employers to consider requests for flexible working by replacing the previous statutory process for considering requests with a duty on employers to consider requests in a ‘reasonable manner’. To support this Acas has published a statutory Code to help businesses understand how to handle requests. Further information is available from: <a href="http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616" target="_blank">http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616</a>.</p><p> </p><p>To support the creation of more high quality part-time jobs, we are working to encourage cultural change in flexible working, especially to encourage employers to think about flexible working when they recruit new employees. For example, the Government convened an employer-led group to make practical recommendations on how flexible working can be beneficial and how it can be built into employer’s recruitment. Following the recommendations of this group we are encouraging the use of the strapline “Happy to Talk Flexible Working” by employers when they advert jobs.</p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, on 10 June, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister of State for Pensions and my Hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott) led a conference on flexible working for employers. The conference explained the benefits of flexible working and providing practical tips on getting it working within individual workplaces, including a practical session on successfully designing part-time jobs.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, to promote part-time work more generally, BIS, in partnership with the <strong>Business is Great</strong> campaign,<strong> the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) </strong>and<strong> PwC</strong>, sponsored a new initiative launched by Timewise in search of the UK’s most flexible small businesses that offer flexible work options to employees. The competition ran from 16 October to 24 November. The winner will be announced publicly by Friday 20 March 2015. The Government is also promoting flexible working and part-time working as part of the GREAT campaign to target business press. More detail on the GREAT campaign here: <a href="http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/flexibleworking/" target="_blank">http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/flexibleworking/</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, Acas have produced guidance booklets for employers and employees on how to manage flexible working and a work-life balance. Further information is available from: <a href="http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1283" target="_blank">http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1283</a>.</p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 28/11/2014 14:17:16 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
	tabling member	172 label Biography information for Ms Diane Abbott

76534

	registered interest
	date	08/07/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Skilled Workers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what action his Department is taking to address the exploitation of low-skilled workers.
	tabling member constituency	Hackney North and Stoke Newington
	tabling member printed	Ms Diane Abbott
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	204527
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2014 answer text <p>In order to protect the rights of workers, this Department is taking a tougher approach on all employers that break minimum wage law. We have already made it simpler to name and shame employers that break the law in this area. The revised Naming and Shaming scheme came into effect on 1 October 2013. The new rules are part of Government efforts to toughen up enforcement of the National Minimum Wage and increase compliance.</p><p>The Government has already publicly named 30 employers. Between them they owe workers a total of over £50,000 in arrears and have been charged financial penalties totalling over £24,000. By naming and shaming employers it is hoped that bad publicity will be an additional deterrent to employers who would otherwise be tempted not to pay the National Minimum Wage.</p><p>The Government has also doubled the financial penalty percentage that employers pay for breaking minimum wage law from 50 per cent to 100 per cent of the unpaid wages owed to workers and quadrupled the maximum penalty from £5,000 to £20,000. The Government will now introduce primary legislation so that a maximum penalty of up to £20,000 can be applied on a per worker basis – significantly increasing the maximum penalty employers can face.</p><p>In addition, through the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill the Government is bringing forward measures to ban exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts and through secondary legislation to ban employment agencies using an ‘overseas only' approach to filling posts. Both measures will further enhance the opportunities for workers, especially in low-skilled professions.</p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 16/07/2014 13:43:59 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
	tabling member	172 label Biography information for Ms Diane Abbott