Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has undertaken an impact assessment on potential economic costs for the UK in the event that the proposed World Trade Organisation TRIPS Waiver is not approved.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK Government does not consider waiving IP rights to be an appropriate course of action to boost the manufacturing of safe, effective and quality vaccines.
The existing intellectual property framework has mobilised research and development to deliver a host of new medicines and technologies, to detect, treat and defend against COVID-19. The incentives and access mechanisms provided by the IP framework have been integral to this success, without which we would not have seen the impressive surge of R&D and the unprecedented scaling up of production.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential for local electricity generation schemes in East Anglia.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In 2017 as part of the Local Energy Programme, BEIS provided funding to all Local Enterprise Partnerships to develop an energy strategy. New Anglia’s strategy was part of the tri-LEP approach including Greater Cambridgeshire, Greater Peterborough and Hertfordshire LEPs. This strategy identified, assessed and prioritised low carbon energy projects including local energy generation across the region.
The Local Energy Programme also funds 5 local energy hubs covering all of England to support the development of energy projects. The Greater South East hub is based in Greater Cambridgeshire, Greater Peterborough and supports projects across New Anglia.
BEIS has also allocated over £2.5m to the Greater South East region to support rural communities develop renewable energy schemes under the Rural Community Energy Fund.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport on 3 June 2020, official report, column 847, that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, what steps the Government is taking to prevent employers from using that scheme to fund the wages of employees only for those employers to put the same staff on notice of redundancy during the furlough period.
Answered by Paul Scully
An employer can opt to make a worker redundant under certain conditions, if they deem this to be the best course of action to take for their business. The employee will maintain rights against unfair dismissal and to redundancy payments during the period of furlough. Any redundancy process should be fair and reasonable, with appropriate equalities considerations.
Pay during the redundancy notice period is based on the individual’s rights under their contract of employment and the statutory right to notice pay (under section 86 and the following sections of the Employment Rights Act 1996).
In these difficult times, we would not expect an employer to take advantage of CJRS, which has brought benefit to employers and employees alike, to make someone redundant on less favourable terms than they would otherwise have received. Please visit the Gov.uk page for updates and changes to the scheme at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what criteria his Department used to decide which organisations would be consulted as part of the working group on the re-opening of pubs as the covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Pubs and Restaurants working level Technical Group comprised stakeholders from a cross-section of the sector, with representation from trade bodies to small and medium sized operators, unions, as well as the supply chain. We consulted these stakeholders due to their expertise and real-life knowledge and experience of the challenges faced by the industry during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Public Health England and the Health and Safety Executive also took part in the Technical Group discussion to ensure the COVID-19 secure guidance for restaurants, pubs, bars and takeaway services is consistent with the latest scientific and health and safety advice.
In addition to the Technical Group, we consulted over 400 stakeholders from the hospitality sector in the development of the guidance. This includes ongoing discussions that I have had with business leaders.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the British Pubs Confederation on the re-opening of pubs after the covid-19 lockdown is eased.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government have engaged with the British Pubs Confederation through correspondence and continue to engage with a broad variety of representatives across the industry on the challenges facing the pub sector, including on the re-opening of pubs.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent progress the Government has made on the 2030 Energy Strategy.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The EU’s 2030 Energy Strategy as agreed in 2014 set a framework for climate and energy for the period 2021 to 2030. The EU subsequently adopted the ‘Clean Energy for all Europeans’ legislative package implementing this Strategy.
Under this legislation, Member States are required to set out their domestic objectives, policies and measures covering the five dimensions of the EU’s Energy Union from 2021 to 2030 in National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP). The Government published the UK’s draft NECP in January 2019. On 18 June, the European Commission published non-binding recommendations for the UK’s draft Plan, and the Government will carefully consider and respond to these as we prepare our final version of the Plan.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to facilitate cross-governmental co-operation on tackling climate change.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Tackling climate change is a shared endeavour between all Government departments. BEIS Ministers and officials regularly engage with their counterparts across government on clean growth matters including delivery of the Clean Growth Strategy and progress against our carbon budgets.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many onshore wind turbine applications have been referred to and (b) approved by his Department in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Energy Act 2016 transferred responsibility for deciding planning applications for onshore wind schemes over 50MW to individual local planning authorities. Prior to that the responsibility had been with the Secretary of State for Energy.
Section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 enables my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to call in certain planning applications for onshore wind farms, for his own consideration.
A breakdown by year of all current and approved applications, including referrals, can be accessed on the REPD, which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewable-energy-planning-database-monthly-extract.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many onshore wind turbine applications have been approved in each region since 2015.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Every quarter, BEIS publishes the Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD), which lists applications for renewable energy projects as they through progress through planning. The latest version was published on 16 April 2019.
A breakdown by year and region can be accessed on the REPD, which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewable-energy-planning-database-monthly-extract.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the closure of the feed-in tariff scheme to new applicants, what proportion of Levy Control Framework funding across the lifetime of that scheme will be allocated to (a) schools, (b) community energy groups, (c) individual households, (d) business undertaking self-supply and (e) commercial solar developers.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Estimates of funding and spend for the Feed-in Tariffs scheme under the Levy Control Framework are not available broken down by type of beneficiary.