Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will conduct a review of the adequacy of the regulatory system for the promotion and development of hydrogen technology.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Work is ongoing to ensure that the regulatory system supports the development of a UK hydrogen economy. This includes through the BEIS Hydrogen Regulators Forum and bilateral engagement. The Government will work with industry and regulators to identify, prioritise and implement any changes to the existing framework, including addressing any gaps, to support the growth of the hydrogen economy. BEIS recently consulted on existing regulatory arrangements through a consultation on hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure business models and regulation, and is currently reviewing the submitted responses.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
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 support and develop the hydrogen supply chain in the UK.
Answered by Graham Stuart
In July 2022, the Government published the Hydrogen Sector Development Action Plan which sets out actions the Government and industry are taking to support UK supply chains. Actions include improving project visibility and holding ‘Meet the Specifier’ events, designed to increase transparency of project timings and requirements for supply chain companies. Industry will also lead work voluntarily to set levels of ambition for supply chains in UK hydrogen projects.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many applications he has received for the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Between September 2019 and August 2020, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles received 38,612 applications under the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2017 to Question 65481, how many and what proportion of the 2016 Queen's Award for Enterprise awards were presented to women in the (a) International Trade, (b) Innovation and (c) Sustainable Development category.
Answered by Margot James
I refer my Hon Friend to my reply to the hon Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) to Question UIN 65481. Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in the categories of International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development recognise the achievements of companies, not individuals; therefore gender statistics are not available.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the commercial viability of the methods proposed by recent research and development on reducing the costs of carbon capture technology by up to two-thirds in the (a) UK and (b) rest of the world.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department has commissioned a study, “Assessing the cost reduction potential and competitiveness of novel (next generation) UK carbon capture technology,” to determine how the Department can support next generation carbon capture technology in future innovation programme funding and support cost reduction in carbon capture. The study will complete in autumn 2017.
In addition, the UK is a member of Mission Innovation, and participating in the Carbon Capture Innovation Challenge [1] which seeks to identify breakthrough technologies and research and development opportunities in carbon capture technology with the aim of lowering costs and facilitating global carbon capture and storage deployment.
[1] http://mission-innovation.net/our-work/innovation-challenges/carbon-capture-challenge/
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the number of young people undertaking an (a) modern and (b) higher apprenticeship in Dartford.
Answered by Nick Boles
Information on apprenticeship starts by level and parliamentary constituency are published as a supplementary table (first link) to a Statistical First Release (second link).
The term Modern Apprenticeships only applies in Scotland. In England, apprenticeships are described as Intermediate Level, Advanced Level and Higher Apprenticeships.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of young people from Dartford who went to university in the last five years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publishes data on the entry rates for full-time undergraduate courses by parliamentary constituency. UCAS does not publish data on the number of entrants by parliamentary constituency, only entry rates.
Latest statistics from the 2015 UCAS End of Cycle Report for the Dartford constituency are provided in the table. The entry rate is given as the proportion of 18 year olds that accepted a place during a UCAS application cycle.
Table: Higher Education entry rates for 18 year olds from the Dartford Constituency | ||||
2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 |
28.6% | 23.2% | 29.9% | 27.3% | 32.5% |
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether the 450 million euros of funding from the EU allocated to carbon capture and storage projects in Yorkshire and the Humber will be spent in the UK following the decision to reduce spending on carbon capture and storage announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Don Valley Carbon Capture and Storage project was awarded a €180m European Energy Programme for Recovery grant in 2009 which contributes towards the feasibility and design phase of the project's development. The award remains in place.
In 2013 the White Rose CCS project was awarded up to €300m in potential funding from the European Commission’s NER300 fund. Officials in the Department are in regular contact with the European Commission about this award and related issues.