Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the UK–India Free Trade Agreement on his Department.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK and Republic of India concluded talks on their free trade agreement (FTA) on 6 May.
The FTA includes a standalone environment chapter that supports the UK’s Clean Energy Superpower Mission, transition to Net Zero and climate goals. It promotes trade in green goods needed to deliver clean power and could boost UK clean energy exports, as well as strengthening cooperation on clean energy. It reaffirms commitments to the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement and recognises the right of the UK to regulate in pursuit of our ambitious climate and environment goals. Finally, the FTA will commit both countries to strive to uphold strong levels of environmental protection, and to not waive their environmental laws to encourage bilateral trade or investment.
The Department for Business and Trade will publish a formal Impact Assessment of the UK-India FTA in due course. This will provide estimates of the economic impacts of a trade deal with India, including estimates of the sectoral, regional and environmental impacts.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Ofgem's readiness criteria for the UK data centre sector on growth in that sector.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has worked closely with Ofgem and NESO on major reforms to the grid connections process. These reforms are expected to deprioritise up to 500GW of excess generation and storage capacity from the connections queue, freeing up capacity for viable connection customers across GB, such as data centres. The ‘readiness’ criteria will ensure that limited grid capacity is allocated fairly, prioritising connection offers for projects, including data centres, that are demonstrably ready to deliver – helping maximise efficient use of the network. The AI Energy Council will also consider grid connections opportunities for growth in the data centre sector.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether their Department offers its staff shared parental leave from their first working day.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
To be eligible for shared parental leave in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, each parent must have at least 26 weeks continuous employment with their respective employer by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth or adoption matching date. They must also still be working for the same respective employer (for Civil Servants continuous service applies to other Civil Service employers) when they intend to take the leave.
Some employees could qualify for shared parental leave on their first day of service where they have built up qualifying service in another Civil Service organisation.
As with any changes to employment legislation, internal policies and processes will be updated as appropriate in preparation for when the Employment Rights Bill comes into effect.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what targets his Department has set to help achieve the Government's commitments to net zero.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy
The Climate Change Act sets our commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 in law. The UK has halved its emissions, having cut them by around 53% between 1990 and 2023.
As my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister announced on 12th November, the UK has pledged to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% on 1990 levels by 2035, excluding international aviation and shipping.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent estimate her Department has made of the cost of decarbonising the electricity grid by (a) 2030 and (b) 2050.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department published a paper looking at the power sector in 2050 and the impact of decarbonisation on annual system costs incurred in the same year[1]. The paper identifies a range of illustrative low-cost, low-carbon electricity generation mixes that are consistent with meeting Net Zero by 2050. Total annual system costs for these mixes range from £66 to £82 billion in 2022 prices. No similar analysis was performed for 2030.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modelling-2050-electricity-system-analysis
[1] Modelling 2050 – electricity system analysis - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)