Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (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 (1) existing UK manufacturing capacity, and (2) associated supply chains, in relation to the capacity required to insulate the entirety of the UK’s building stock in time to meet the 2050 Net Zero target.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government recognises the need for a skilled, competent and robust supply chain to deliver the improvements to buildings necessary to meet our net zero targets. We are continuing to work with the industry to support training in key skills shortage areas and new routes of entry to increase capacity.
The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) published research in 2021, ‘Building Skills for Net Zero’, that used the Climate Change Committee’s data to define a skills route map for the UK construction industry. This identifies the roles and expertise teams need to meet the requirements for the UK, Wales and Scotland and can be found here: https://www.citb.co.uk/about-citb/construction-industry-research-reports/search-our-construction-industry-research-reports/building-skills-for-net-zero/
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government over what period was the £71 million funding invested in research by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research; how much of this funding has been spent on administrative costs; and how much of this funding has been spent on projects where refinement of the use of animals in research was the primary focus.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. I will correspond directly with the noble Baroness.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to invite councils to volunteer to be part of the Radioactive Waste Management search for a geological disposal facility host community.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In the 2014 Implementing Geological Disposal White Paper Government set out three initial actions which will provide greater clarity on issues such as geology, development impacts and community representation. Good progress is being made on these initial actions and Government expects to consult on the draft National Policy Statement and Working with Communities policy in the coming months, ahead of the launch of the official siting process.
As set out in the 2014 White Paper, once the siting process has been launched any interested community will be able to initiate discussions about the possibility of becoming the host community for a geological disposal facility.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what information his Department holds on when officials from the Office of Nuclear Regulation last met Sellafield trades union leaders from (a) Unite, (b) Prospect and (c) the GMB.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) met with safety representatives from the unions on 13 July 2016 as part of preparations for Sellafield’s Annual Regulatory Review. Union leaders were invited to attend and Prospect and GMB were represented at this meeting. ONR regularly interacts with union representatives from Unite, Prospect and the GMB as part of its normal regulatory business, including at site stakeholder and safety representative meetings. The most recent of these interactions attended by a senior Sellafield union representative (Prospect) was on 1 November.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect on Magnox workers' pensions of those pensions being included in the redundancy cap.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is aware of the particular context that Site Licence Companies operate in and has worked to understand the implications of the cap on exit payments; it should be noted that the public sector exit payment cap will cover payments made in relation to leaving employment. This includes additional pension top-up payments paid by the employer as part of an exit package.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has met employers in the nuclear industry in relation to their pensions being included as part of the redundancy caps in the public sector.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Ministers in the Department of Energy and Climate Change and in this Department have met with Trade Union representatives to discuss workforce reform issues across the nuclear decommissioning estate, including the application of the public sector exit payments cap. The most recent meeting took place in October of this year.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to support Magnox workers affected by the redundancy cap.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The public sector exit payments cap, as introduced by the Enterprise Act 2016, will apply to organisations classified as within the public sector by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), implementing the manifesto commitment made in April 2015. As Magnox is classified by the ONS as a public sector organisation and receives a significant amount of funding from the Exchequer, it is within the scope of the reforms.
The Government is aware of the particular context that Site Licence Companies operate in, and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority utilises redeployment and retraining opportunities in redundancy situations across its estate where it is appropriate to do so.
The regulations that will implement the cap are currently being drafted, and the Government will publically release both guidance and regulations for comment before the regulations are laid in Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential savings to the public purse of Magnox and other nuclear workers' pension schemes being included in the public sector redundancy cap.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The potential savings from applying the public sector exit payment cap across the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority estate will depend on the number and type of exits from Site Licence Companies, including Magnox Ltd, in the future. It is therefore not possible to put a precise figure on these savings.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 6 December 2010, Official Report, column 7WS, what consideration his Department has given to the articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child when making new policy and legislation since May 2015.
Answered by Margot James
Assessing the impact of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy policies on families is an integral part of policy development in the Department.
Being able to analyse properly the impact of polices in relation to particular groups is a fundamental part of good policy-making.
Rights, freedoms and protections for children are considered throughout policy-making. This is done through:
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to improve the resolution of weather warning systems.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Met Office is committed to improving the accuracy of its weather forecasts on a continuous basis. Further improvements to the Met Office’s high resolution forecast model and systems are planned during the next twelve months, enabled by our investment in the new Met Office supercomputer. These improvements will provide additional local detail within rainfall forecasts for Cumbria and across the rest of the UK and also help to better quantify the uncertainty within rainfall predictions. This will enable the Met Office to provide earlier, more accurate and more detailed warning of severe weather and help the UK to be more resilient and better prepared for high impact events.