Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which businesses have been removed from the Prompt Payment Code due to non-compliance.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Since the Government announced its new tough and transparent compliance regime for the Prompt Payment Code, 66 businesses have been suspended from the Code while 34 of those have subsequently been reinstated, having committed to improve their treatment of suppliers, thus demonstrating compliance. The improved payment practices of those businesses who were suspended and reinstated demonstrates the effectiveness of the Code in positively changing payment behaviours.
A full list of companies can be found within the related press releases on the website of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of the amount owed to UK SMEs as a result of late payment.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There are several organisations that have produced estimates for outstanding late payment debt, and the disparities between them can be sizeable due to different methodologies and sample sizes. The government keeps estimates under continuous review, including Pay.UK figures.
Late payments are a drain on productivity and have an immediate impact on cashflow, particularly for small businesses. This Government made a manifesto commitment to clamp down on late payment more broadly and strengthen the powers of the Small Business Commissioner to support small business that are exploited by their larger partners.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - 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 survey by Pay.UK, published in November 2019, showing that the amount owed to small businesses in late payments increased from £13 billion in 2018 to £23.4 billion in 2019.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There are several organisations that have produced estimates for outstanding late payment debt, and the disparities between them can be sizeable due to different methodologies and sample sizes. The government keeps estimates under continuous review, including Pay.UK figures.
Late payments are a drain on productivity and have an immediate impact on cashflow, particularly for small businesses. This Government made a manifesto commitment to clamp down on late payment more broadly and strengthen the powers of the Small Business Commissioner to support small business that are exploited by their larger partners.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - 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 manufacturing purchasing managers’ index falling to a 7-year low of 47.4; and what assessment they have made of the statement by Capital Economics that the sector is “on track for recession”.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The Purchasing Managers Indices (PMIs), are a useful and timely barometer of economic activity but our assessment is that there is a trade-off between speed of publication and data quality. In addition, while the PMIs are mainly focused on changes in objective measures such as sales, evidence suggests they are still affected by business sentiment.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many consultations the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has carried out in each of the last five years; and to how many of those it published a formal response within 12 weeks of the consultation closing.
Answered by Lord Henley
Since its creation in July 2016, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published 140 consultations.
Year | Number of consultations | Response published within 12 weeks |
2016 | 24 | 7 |
2017 | 43 | 8 |
2018 | 50 | 11 |
2019 | 23* | 5 |
*6 consultations are still open. 8 consultations are closed, but still within the 12 week period.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 20 May (HL15733), what activity they are undertaking to explore second life applications for electric vehicle batteries which are no longer able to perform as required; what proportion of electric vehicle batteries would be diverted to secondary use; and what discussions they have had with industry and researchers on that topic.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government has directly supported energy storage through research and innovation funding. This support includes current funding from BEIS for an energy storage cost reduction project, led by Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd, which is looking at reducing the cost of stationary energy storage by developing cost effective, large-scale processes for grading and sorting 2nd life Electric Vehicle batteries. This project is due to be completed by end March 2021.
There are several projects being funded as part of the Collaborative Research & Development (CR&D) activity of the Faraday Battery Challenge working on the development of the technical aspects of remanufacture and understanding the economic viability of using electric vehicle batteries for second life applications. These range in focus from diagnostic techniques to establish the suitability of batteries for a second life application and inform warranties for the second life devices, to developing effective methods of remanufacture which includes optimising the initial battery design for remanufacture. Second life applications are also a topic of research in the Faraday Institution (FI) supported Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries (ReLIB) project, with a cohort group established from the participants of the Collaborative Research & Development (CR&D) and FI recycling and second life projects to share learning in this area. The business cases for the types of electric vehicle batteries which are suitable both physically and from an economic perspective for second life applications are under development across the industry. These applications are dependent, among other factors, on the rapidly changing cost of new batteries and the value and efficiency of recovering the materials compared to the cost of remanufacture. Discussions are active with industry and researchers on this topic, both as part of the recycling and reuse cohort as well as conversations with companies and organisations across the UK, covering topics such as data handling and sharing to enable assessment of battery health at the end of EV life. The UK is also actively engaged in the World Economic Forum Global Battery Alliance and European Battery Alliance working groups in recycling and reuse.
These innovation projects exploring second life battery use will help to provide information on the proportion of electric vehicle batteries which could be cost-effectively diverted to secondary use.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 17 April (HL15077), why they do not have any plans to increase global cooperation and governance of research on, and the use of, solar radiation management technologies; and what assessment, if any, they have made of the risk of that lack of plans leading to unilateral deployment without international consent
Answered by Lord Henley
The priority of the UK Government is to tackle the root cause of climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities and adapting to those impacts that are unavoidable. We are aware of independent existing efforts to increase cooperation and governance of research into solar radiation management technologies, such as the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative and the ‘Oxford Principles’ for the governance of geoengineering. We have not formally assessed the risk that lack of plans may lead to unilateral deployment without international consent.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 16 April (HL15075), what proportion of their £8.6 million Greenhouse Gas Removal research programme with UK Research and Innovation is targeted at the removal of greenhouses gasses other than carbon dioxide.
Answered by Lord Henley
This information is publicly available on the Natural Environment Research Council website, from which the full list of projects funded by the Greenhouse Gas Removal research programme is provided in the attached document. One of the 13 projects is targeted at gasses other than carbon dioxide, specifically on new methodologies for removal of methane from the atmosphere. This project is receiving £223,782 in funding, or 3% of the programme total.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish their response to Creating a responsible payment culture: a call for evidence on tackling late payment, which closed 29 November 2018; and why it has not yet been published when Cabinet Office Government Consultation Principles state that responses to consultations should be published within 12 weeks of the consultation closing.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Creating a Responsible Payment Culture Call for Evidence received nearly 300 responses from a wide range of businesses, trade associations and individuals. This is the highest number of responses to a public consultation on this issue.
It is important that have given those representations the consideration they deserve and use them to inform the action we will take on this important issue.
The Government Response will be published shortly.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 20 May (HL15733), what progress has so far been made by the Faraday Institution research project into the reuse and recycling of lithium-ion batteries; and when this project is scheduled to be (1) completed, and (2) published.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries (ReLiB) project is a cross disciplinary research programme investigating the management of End-of-Life Lithium Ion batteries from Electric Vehicles (EVs). Giving end of first life battery cells and components the opportunity for use in a secondary application may be a way to maximise use and value. The ReLiB project aims to develop automated techniques for determining the characteristics and viability of such components so that they can be re-deployed effectively, secure maximum benefits and inappropriate applications can be avoided. Seven leading UK universities are collaborating on this Faraday Institution funded project (£10,060,130). It aims to address technical, commercial, environmental, policy and regulatory aspects of EV battery management.
As an important part of the transition to low carbon vehicles, the ReLiB project is initially funded for a period of 3 years commencing 1st March 2018, but with a 10year technology horizon. Outputs from the first phase of the project are now being generated, are and will continue to be, published in peer reviewed scientific journal. Early stage developments include the development of automated systems to dismantle battery packs safely and optimise the processing of the components in the UK. The project will also seek to generate and exploit intellectual property, in the battery re-use and recycling field, generated through the course of the project in collaboration with UK industrial partners.
Developing UK facilities for processing EV batteries will contribute to Government’s aim of developing a more Circular Economy. Recovery of valuable elements such as cobalt and nickel would contribute to securing supplies of the materials required as inputs for indigenous volume automotive UK battery manufacturing facilities.