§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give details, by region, for the amount of funding awarded for each round of SRB funding and give in each case the number of jobs created and directly funded as a result of the SRB programme; and, of those, what percentage of fixed-term contracts have waivers in place in respect of redundancy costs. [39]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe SRB challenge fund provides support for between one to seven years for regeneration schemes by locally based partnerships. Funds awarded by region in the first two bidding rounds of the challenge fund and the number of jobs expected to be created or safeguarded as a result are set out in the table:
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Round 1 Round 2 Round 1 Round 2 £million £million Plans: Jobs created/ safeguarded (000s) Plans: Jobs created/ safeguarded (000s) London 316.7 230.0 55 39 South East 31.8 78.6 12 9 Eastern 20.7 35.3 4 9 South West 34.1 37.9 11 13 East Midlands 55.9 56.8 24 21
Round 1 Round 2 Round 1 Round 2 £ million £ million Plans: Jobs created/ safeguarded (000s) Plans: Jobs created/ safeguarded (000s) West Midlands 156.7 147.1 37 40 Merseyside 78.0 87.5 15 11 North West 143.3 133.2 71 22 Yorks and the Humber 202.2 152.3 62 16 North East 80.7 159.9 11 20 It is for the partnerships themselves to determine the terms and conditions of any staff they employ directly. Partnerships have, however, been advised that they should include the waivers referred to in fixed-term contracts as any redundancy costs incurred by them as a result of the absence of such waivers would not be met from the SRB challenge fund. My Department does not collect information about the number of staff directly employed by partnerships on fixed-term contracts.
§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his estimate of the cost of rights to claims for unfair dismissal and redundancies in respect of those employed under SRB funding. [81]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe SRB challenge fund provides support for between one to seven years for regeneration schemes by locally based partnerships. It is for the partnerships themselves to determine how many staff they employ and on what terms and conditions.
§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will review his decision to require fixed-term contracts under SRB projects to contain waivers of rights to claims for unfair dismissal and redundancies; and if he will make a statement. [33]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe SRB challenge fund provides support for between one to seven years for regeneration schemes by locally based partnerships. It is for the partnerships themselves to determine the terms and conditions for any staff they employ directly. However, it is Government policy that fixed-term contracts should contain waivers of right to claims for unfair dismissal and redundancy, as provided under section 197 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
The employee's agreement to the waiver means that protection against unfair dismissal does not apply to a dismissal from employment under a contract for a fixed term of one year or more if the dismissal consists only of the expiry of that term without its being renewed. The waiver does not affect employees' rights to claim for unfair dismissal or redundancy payments in other circumstances.
Partnerships involved in SRB challenge fund schemes have been advised that any claims for unfair dismissal or redundancy costs incurred by them as the result of the absence of such waivers will not be eligible for grant assistance where staff were employed on fixed-term contracts after the advice was issued to them.
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§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received in respect of fixed-term contracts under SRB contracts. [32]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordFollowing the issue to SRB challenge fund partnerships of advice on waivers by employees on fixed-term contracts, a handful of SRB partnerships have sought further clarification of the costs which will be eligible for grant assistance from the challenge fund.