Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to support the automotive industry's transition to electric vehicles in the West Midlands.
Answered by Alan Mak
We continue to work with industry via the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to support the creation of an internationally competitive zero emission vehicle supply chain in the UK, including gigafactories.
There are substantial opportunities for R&D and capital investment across the supply chain and the West Midlands is well-placed to benefit.
As part of the Advanced Manufacturing Plan, we have announced over £2bn of capital and R&D funding over five years to 2030 in zero emission vehicles, batteries and the wider supply chain, boosting the UK’s competitiveness and unlocking strategic investments in our automotive industry.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policies of the correspondence sent to her Department by Help for Heroes and Combat Stress on 1 November 2023 on the potential impact of the private use of fireworks on armed forces veterans; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislation to further restrict the (a) sale and (b) use of fireworks.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Following correspondence from Help for Heroes and Combat Stress in November 2023, officials in the Department recently met with representatives from the organisations to discuss the impact of fireworks on armed forces veterans. We agreed to continue engagement on this matter going forward.
Whilst the Government has no current plans to introduce further legislation on fireworks, we continue to monitor the situation and engage with a wide range of stakeholders to listen to and understand their views.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had discussions with her counterpart in the Scottish Government on the effectiveness of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 in tackling (a) anti-social behaviour and (b) animal welfare concerns.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
There is a comprehensive legislative framework regulating the manufacture, storage, supply, possession and use of fireworks in the UK. The Government has no current plans to review the legislation, but we continue to monitor the situation.
The Government regularly engages with its counterparts in Scotland. We have discussed the recent Scottish legislative changes with them, and we will continue to discuss the impacts of their approach to fireworks legislation.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she plans to review legislation on the sale of fireworks.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
There is a comprehensive legislative framework regulating the manufacture, storage, supply, possession and use of fireworks in the UK. The Government has no current plans to review the legislation, but we continue to monitor the situation.
The Government regularly engages with its counterparts in Scotland. We have discussed the recent Scottish legislative changes with them, and we will continue to discuss the impacts of their approach to fireworks legislation.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has commissioned an independent assessment of the economic contribution of deep-sea mining.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government commissioned an independent review from the British Geological Survey, the National Oceanography Centre and Heriot-Watt University, to support informed decision making regarding potential future development of mineral resources in the deep sea.
Chapter Four of that review addresses Economics, and the full document (published in October 2022) is available here: https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/deep-sea-mining-evidence-review-published/
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had recent discussions with Royal Mail on taking steps to keep customers informed following disruption caused by the cyber attack on that company
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Royal Mail’s approach to informing customers of service disruptions is an operational matter for Royal Mail as a private business. I understand that Royal Mail had provided updates to its customers on the resumption of services through its international incident bulletin, published on its website: www.royalmail.com/international-incident-bulletin.