Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of recent French legislation requiring car parks of 80 spaces or more to install solar panels within five years, whether similar UK legislation is being considered; if so, how such a scheme would be funded; and if it is not being considered, why not.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Solar power is a key part of the energy mix, and the Government will continue to support its deployment to meet energy security and net zero goals.
The Government is pleased to see examples of solar installations in UK car parks such as in York, Glasgow and Leeds and is considering how to encourage more.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether some OneWeb satellites are now in Russian military custody; what the implications of this are for the security of the rest of OneWeb’s constellation; and whether they have undertaken a wider appraisal of the security implications for the UK more broadly.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The security of OneWeb assets is a commercially sensitive matter for the company. HMG conduct security assessments on all UK licensed space systems to ensure matters of national security are appropriately considered and managed.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, (1) what assessment they have made of the number of UK-based scientists who may have grant offers from the European Research Council withdrawn if there are no UK–EU agreements on Horizon Europe, Copernicus and Euratom, and (2) how many UK-based scientists have already relocated to the EU.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK remains committed and is taking unprecedented steps to support association to Horizon Europe. This includes setting out a guarantee to fund eligible, successful UK applicants to Horizon Europe whose grants are expected to be signed by December 2022. This will ensure that important individual and collaborative projects can go ahead as planned regardless of the status of our association to Horizon Europe.
The guarantee means that eligible successful applicants will receive the full value of their funding at a UK host institution or in their consortia, and do not need to leave the UK. UKRI onboarding remains open, and so we encourage all eligible successful UK applicants to take up their guaranteed grant with UKRI.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK’s application to be an associated country to Horizon Europe is not delayed because of problems relating to the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland; what discussions they have had with universities about the financial and reputational effects of the UK not being associated with Horizon Europe; and what was the total income for UK research projects from Horizon Europe in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK stands ready to formalise our association to Horizon Europe, but there have been persistent delays from the EU, who have openly stated they are not proceeding with the UK’s participation in EU programmes due to wider political issues.
The Northern Ireland Protocol and the UK’s participation in Union programmes are entirely separate issues, and contained in different agreements. We are disappointed in the politicisation of valuable R&D collaboration, and continue to urge the Commission to finalise the UK’s participation in Horizon as soon as possible.
Supporting the UK’s research and development sector through this period of uncertainty has been our top priority. The Government engages regularly with the R&D sector, including with groups and individuals representing universities across the whole of the UK.
The net EU contribution of awards won by UK beneficiaries in Horizon 2020 – the predecessor programme to Horizon Europe which made its final awards in 2021 – by year of project signature date is:
UK Awards by grant signature year € m (Excluding Euratom) [i] |
| ||
Year of Grant Signature | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Grand Total | 950 | 898 | 565 |
[i] Figures are given in million EUR. Figures in GBP change with exchange rates and cannot be accurately reported due to exchange rate volatility. Data source is the Horizon R&I projects dashboard.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many companies have been scrutinised following quarterly filing of management information under the Future Fund Scheme; and what details are required as part of that management information.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Companies receiving investment from the Future Fund did so under a Convertible Loan Agreement (CLA) on standard terms. Schedule 4 of the CLA specifies management information that the company is required to provide each quarter. The British Business Bank scrutinises all management information submitted by Future Fund companies.
The CLA is a public document, a copy of which is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they take if a company in receipt of funding under the Future Fund Scheme has not begun trading; what systems are in place to reclaim funding under that Scheme; and what criteria are applied for reclaiming such funding.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The purpose of the Future Fund was to support UK companies that typically rely on equity investment and were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It was open to all companies that met the scheme’s eligibility criteria.
These included a requirement for the company to have been incorporated in the UK on or before 31 December 2019 and to have raised at least £250,000 in equity from third-party investors in previous funding rounds, in the five years prior to 19 April 2020. Provision was later made for certain non-UK parent companies to apply. The eligibility criteria did not include a requirement that companies must have begun trading.
The convertible loan agreement (CLA) included a warranty from the company that it satisfied the eligibility criteria in full.
Should a company be found to have failed to comply in any material respect with any of the provisions of the CLA, or if the company ceases to carry on all or a substantial part of its business, then the Future Fund has the right to call an Event of Default. In this case the Future Fund is entitled to request repayment of the loan and accrued interest, alongside a 100% redemption premium.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the recent actions by P&O Ferries, whether they intend to review (1) the Seafarers Directive, and (2) the 2018 amendment to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; and whether it remains their view that the amendment made enables owners of foreign flagged vessels to notify redundancies to competent authorities in the state where the vessel is registered, instead of to the Secretary of State.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government wrote to the Insolvency Service on 23 March asking it to undertake an urgent and thorough enquiry into the recent actions of P&O Ferries, to determine whether the law has been complied with and consider prompt and appropriate action where it has not.
The Insolvency Service confirmed on 01 April that following its enquiries it has initiated both formal and civil investigations into the circumstances surrounding the redundancies made by P&O Ferries.
You will appreciate that while these investigations are being progressed it would not be appropriate to make further comment but the Insolvency Service will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Brexit on the legal rights of P&O Ferries employees who have been made redundant; and whether Brexit has affected the rights of British seafarers to work in EU countries.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK’s high labour standards were never dependent on our membership of the EU. The UK has a robust legal framework for employment rights – including giving workers the right to be consulted and given fair notice of potential redundancy. P&O Ferries has conducted itself in an appalling manner. We are working to establish the facts of the case, but there can be no excuse for the way workers have been treated.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding FlyPop Ltd has received from the Future Fund; what due diligence they undertook, prior to awarding this funding, to ensure that the company complies with the requirement for the majority of its business to be based in the UK; whether the company has yet applied for the necessary UK AOC Licence; and if so, whether that licence has been granted.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department is unable to provide information relating to loan amounts for individual companies as this information is commercially sensitive for both investors and investee businesses.
All investee companies were required to certify that they met the UK nationality criteria as part of the process of signing the Convertible Loan Agreement. Businesses provided details of their country of incorporation, UK Company registration number as well as the citizenship of company officers and an ownership structure chart or supporting documentation showing ultimate beneficial owners of the company. These details were checked as part of the eligibility checks carried out. As this particular business was pre-revenue and pre-operational at the time of application, these checks also satisfied the requirement that over half of employees should be UK-based or half of revenues should be from UK sales.
Licensing is a matter for the Civil Aviation Authority. A UK Air Operator Certificate has not been granted to this company to date.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why their Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper, published on 2 February, includes the creation of three “innovation accelerators” in England and Scotland, but none in Wales; and what assessment they made of levels of past spending on research and development in the nations of the UK when they made this decision.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to increasing research and innovation capacity across the UK.
Innovation Accelerators are a new pilot approach to supporting three UK city regions to become major, globally competitive centres for research and innovation. They will be locally led partnerships involving leaders in local government, business and R&D institutions.
The three city regions selected for the pilots demonstrate R&D strengths, robust private and public innovation governance, and strong local leadership which makes them strong candidates for testing this new approach.
If the Innovation Accelerator pilots prove successful, we will consider how the lessons learned can be applied to benefit other places in the UK.