Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the UK’s geothermal industry and the role of the Contracts for Difference scheme in supporting new developments.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government supports the development of geothermal projects provided it can be done at an acceptable cost to consumers, and the most promising use case in the UK appears to be for heat. Government is supporting the development of low-carbon heat networks and thereby building its capability to harness heat from sources such as geothermal energy. Projects generating electricity from geothermal heat are able to bid into the Contracts for Difference scheme.
The Government is also supporting a report seeking evidence on geothermal opportunities in the UK, which will involve gathering industry’s views through stakeholder workshops and interviews.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they have to show that the £100 Alternative Fuel Payment provides equivalent support to off-grid customers as the Energy Price Guarantee.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has doubled to £200 the level of support for households that use alternative fuels, such as heating oil, LPG, coal or biomass, to heat their homes. This support will be delivered as soon as possible this winter. This is in recognition of the cost-of-living pressures caused by these rising fuel costs.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will provide further detail on how and when heat network customers can expect to receive the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Fund rebate and the Alternative Fuel Payment.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Energy Bill Support Scheme (EBSS) Alternative Funding will provide a £400 discount on energy bills for the small percentage of households that will not be reached through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Eligibility, timescales and method of delivery will be announced in the coming weeks.
Heat network consumers receive support through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) and will not receive the Alternative Fuel Payment, which has been designed to support households using alternative fuels. As the EBRS will be scaled back from April 2023 the Government will bring forward a route to deliver bespoke support for those on heat networks. Further details will be published shortly.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in distributing the £400 energy bill discount to households that are off-grid; and what plans they have to expedite this process.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister of State for Climate to the Hon. Member for St Albans on 22nd September 2022 to Question 48498.
In addition to this, the Government continues to work with consumer groups and suppliers on the delivery of the Scheme and is exploring options for other ways in which customers who do not have a domestic electricity contract might receive similar support. The full suite of help from the Government is covered on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to assist the under 10 metre fishing sector in meeting its increased fuel costs.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra will continue to support the fishing sector through the £100 million UK Seafood Fund, which as one of its main objectives seeks to increase the sustainability of the sector, including through investing in the transition to renewable energy.
Defra is also making £32.7 million in annual funding available across all four nations of the UK, which last year enabled grant schemes to be opened in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, benefiting hundreds of UK businesses. The grant scheme for England, the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme, delivers investment to safeguard the long-term sustainability, resilience and prosperity of the seafood sector. This includes a wide range of support aimed at fishing vessels, with enhanced funding rates of up to 80% made available to members of the small-scale coastal fleet.
In recognition of the challenges in the maritime sector, including the fishing industry, in the 2022 Spring Budget the Chancellor overturned the 2020 announcement to remove the red diesel entitlement for commercial boat operators, meaning the industry can continue to use red diesel, in addition to the Marine Voyages Relief, which gives 100% relief on fuel duty costs.
The increasing cost of fuel is affecting a wide range of sectors including the fishing industry and vessels of all sizes are being affected. Our primary focus is on analysing how the UK fleet is being affected by fuel and fish prices. Defra Ministers and officials are working with colleagues across government, along with a wide range of stakeholders, and are closely monitoring the situation.
The Government has shown long term commitment to the sector and will continue to do so in the future. As part of this long term commitment we are not planning to repurpose funds to mitigate the impacts of high fuel prices. We consider this is a cross cutting issue, and so are liaising with colleagues across government to determine the longer-term impacts and any mitigating actions.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include in the Joint Fisheries Statement a date by which (1) the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and (2) the other devolved administrations, will publish a plan to roll out Remote Electronic Monitoring.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The draft Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) has been developed jointly with the Devolved Administrations and is a significant step forward in our ambitions to ensure a vibrant, modern and resilient fishing industry and a healthy marine environment.
The draft commits the fisheries policy authorities to a wide-ranging and coordinated monitoring programme to underpin their approach to fisheries management. This includes a commitment to explore, where appropriate, the use of technologies such as vessel monitoring systems and Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) for both their scientific purposes, and to aid the sustainable management and control of fisheries.
The public consultation on the JFS is open until 12 April. We will consider responses to that public consultation and any parliamentary scrutiny prior to the publication of the finalised JFS in November. In the meantime, Marine Scotland published a consultation on the use of REM on 16 March.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish a consultation on Remote Electronic Monitoring, following the call for evidence in 2020.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As part of our commitment to delivering a world class fisheries management system Defra is developing a set of proposals for expanding the use of Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) in English waters.
Last year we published the results of our call for evidence on REM which indicated that there are differing views on the use of REM in fisheries. We have been engaging with stakeholders to understand their perspectives and explore their views on different approaches. We do intend to test our proposals through public consultation when they are sufficiently developed, but are conscious of stakeholder capacity to engage and want to ensure that we make the most of the opportunity offered by formal consultation.
Ultimately, we want to develop the right policy to maximise the potential of this exciting technology and ensure that it complements other marine and fisheries reforms, such as a future catching policy and the rollout of Fisheries Management Plans.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to prevent the landlords of those on farm business tenancies from serving notice to quit on those tenants, in order to participate in the Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery elements of the Environmental Land Management Scheme.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are engaging with a wide range of farmers and land managers to inform the development of our Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery schemes, including tenant farmers and landlords. We want to ensure that the schemes are designed in a way that works for all, so all farmers and land managers can be supported to maximise the delivery of environmental outcomes while ensuring effective use of public money.
The Government is aware that a key concern for many tenant farmers is receiving payments for environmental benefits despite not owning the land. Our future schemes will put farmers, foresters and other land managers more in control of how they use their assets in order to deliver environmental outcomes. For the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Local Nature Recovery schemes we envisage that payments will be made to the person delivering the outcomes of the schemes. In Landscape Recovery we are exploring the role of bespoke agreements and payment approaches and tenancies will be considered as part of this.
Evidence shows that many landlords and tenants work together to find solutions to entering agri-environment schemes. To encourage this further the Tenancy Reform Industry Group have updated their best practice guide on how tenants and landlords can work together to deliver environmental schemes successfully. This includes encouraging a culture change within the sector to look at the opportunities that longer-term agreements offer in delivering productivity and environmental improvements which both landlords and tenants can benefit from.
We look forward to engaging further with stakeholders including tenant farmers and landlords as we develop the design of the three schemes.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Benyon on 29 June (HL1134), what plans they have to ensure that those with farm business tenancies will not be excluded from taking part in the long-term commitments for soil, biodiversity and landscape envisaged by the Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery elements of the Environmental Land Management Scheme where landlords are unwilling to grant consent.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are engaging with a wide range of farmers and land managers to inform the development of our Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery schemes, including tenant farmers and landlords. We want to ensure that the schemes are designed in a way that works for all, so all farmers and land managers can be supported to maximise the delivery of environmental outcomes while ensuring effective use of public money.
The Government is aware that a key concern for many tenant farmers is receiving payments for environmental benefits despite not owning the land. Our future schemes will put farmers, foresters and other land managers more in control of how they use their assets in order to deliver environmental outcomes. For the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Local Nature Recovery schemes we envisage that payments will be made to the person delivering the outcomes of the schemes. In Landscape Recovery we are exploring the role of bespoke agreements and payment approaches and tenancies will be considered as part of this.
Evidence shows that many landlords and tenants work together to find solutions to entering agri-environment schemes. To encourage this further the Tenancy Reform Industry Group have updated their best practice guide on how tenants and landlords can work together to deliver environmental schemes successfully. This includes encouraging a culture change within the sector to look at the opportunities that longer-term agreements offer in delivering productivity and environmental improvements which both landlords and tenants can benefit from.
We look forward to engaging further with stakeholders including tenant farmers and landlords as we develop the design of the three schemes.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk to agricultural productivity, sustainability and environmental improvement of (1) the average length of term on farm business tenancies being 3.21 years, and (2) almost 90 per cent of all new farm business tenancies being let for five years or less.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government recognises that longer-term tenancies can provide tenants with the security they need to invest in productivity and environmental improvements. However, feedback from industry stakeholders indicates that regulating for longer terms is not the right way forward as this could lead to landowners withdrawing from the let sector completely. A thriving let sector depends on landowners seeing the opportunity to let their land as a positive option. Also, some farm business models such as seasonal horticulture require shorter term lets.
Instead of regulation the Government is looking at ways in which we can encourage more landlords to consider offering longer-term tenancies while retaining the flexibility that the farm business tenancy framework currently provides. This includes continuing to work with the Tenancy Reform Industry Group, which includes representatives of tenants, landlords and professional advisors, on encouraging a culture change within the sector to look at the opportunities that longer-term agreements offer in delivering productivity and environmental improvements which both landlords and tenants can benefit from.