Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the supply chain carbon cost per MWh is for power generated by Drax when fuelled by (a) domestically sourced coal and (b) wood exported from the USA.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government does not hold this information.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to maintain the supply of free coal to former miners as part of their existing pension entitlements.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are no plans to alter the current concessionary fuel arrangements awarded to certain qualifying former employees and their widows of the coal mining industry.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps with Ofgem to amend the emerging RIIO-ED2 framework so that Distribution Network Operators are encouraged to optimise voltage in the electricity network.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The price control is a matter for the independent regulator, Ofgem.
Ofgem sets the price control with incentives to ensure Distribution Network Operators operate their networks in the most efficient manner. Ofgem have also used innovation funding to support trials and roll out of new technologies enabling Distribution Network Operators to manage voltage levels on the network to optimise system efficiency and drive down customer bills.
The independent Electricity Engineering Standards Review, jointly commissioned by Government and Ofgem, is looking at how the planning and operational engineering standards should be updated to reflect our changing electricity system. This includes considering future changes to voltage limits set out in the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to support innovative projects in the energy market to use smart meter readings to send signals to automatic voltage control devices in the primary electricity network to optimise the voltage for customers.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government welcomes innovations that can improve the quality of supply to consumers and demonstrate value for money, including the safe use of active control of voltage levels.
The Government offers support to companies seeking to bring innovative technologies to market which can help drive the transition to net zero emissions by 2050, through competitive innovation funding grants such as the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund competition. Innovation support schemes are also offered by InnovateUK and Ofgem.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
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 ensure that high street lenders do not require firms to conduct costly third party audits before being considered for a loan under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
There are now over 90 accredited lenders of CBILS and individual lending decisions remain at the discretion of these lenders. We would expect a lender to follow its normal credit policy when assessing security. There has been significant demand for the Scheme and lenders are fully aware of the current urgency, so we expect them to respond appropriately to their customers’ needs.
Since the CBILS was introduced, Government has made several improvements to speed up the application process and ensure businesses are getting the support they need. These include:
- Clarifying that all lenders should use automated, rather than manual, credit checks when assessing the viability of a business;
- Removing the forward-looking viability test;
- Removing the per lender portfolio cap; and
- Removing any requirement for the main lenders to interact with the British Business Bank systems before issuing loans.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will issue guidance to local authorities to allow (a) businesses whose business rates are included in their rent and (b) regular market traders to apply for the funds through the Discretionary Grant Scheme.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
On?1 May,?the Government announced that up to £617 million has been made available to local authorities?in England to allow them to provide discretionary grants. The?Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs.
We are asking local authorities to prioritise the following types of businesses for grants from within this funding pot:
Local authorities are responsible for defining the precise eligibility for this Fund?and?may choose to make payments to other businesses based on local economic need,?subject to those businesses meeting the specific eligibility criteria.
Guidance to support local authorities to administer the Fund was published on 13 May at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether community centres and memorial halls in Elmet and Rothwell constituency are eligible to apply to the rural community energy fund; and what the application process is.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Rural Community Energy Fund is being run by five regional Local Energy Hubs, established as part of the BEIS Local Energy Programme. Elmet and Rothwell is covered by the North East Yorkshire and Humber Energy Hub.
The fund is open to all communities defined as rural, this is any community with less than 10,000 residents. The Local Energy Hub can help to determine the eligibility of communities in Elmet and Rothwell. The fund accepts applications from the following legal entities which represent rural communities:
Please find out more about how to apply and how to contact the Local Energy Hubs here
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to make it easier for private companies to install charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles on 3rd-party land.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Negotiations to facilitate charging infrastructure for electric vehicle installation across third party land rights is a private negotiation between the company and the relevant landowner. As a last resort if agreement cannot be reached, electricity licence holders (as statutory undertakers and installers of such connections on behalf of the private company) have powers under the Electricity Act 1989 that permits them to apply to the Secretary of State for a Compulsory Purchase Order or a necessary (compulsory) wayleave relating to the third party land.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate his Department has made of the total number of (a) paid and (b) unpaid internships in the UK.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Government has not made an estimate of the number of interns in the UK since 2010. The estimate produced in 2010 was based on evidence from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), combined with a number of other assumptions and should be treated as indicative only.
If an intern is classified as a “worker”, they are entitled to at least the National Minimum Wage from day one of their employment.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to prevent electricity shortages in the winter of 2016-17.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK will not face a power shortage in winter 2016/17. National Grid has the right tools they need to manage the system and will ensure that they continue to do so.
National Grid has already procured 3.6GW of reserve capacity for next winter and, in January, the Capacity Market Transitional Arrangements auction bought 800MW of demand side response capacity for winter 16/17 which will also help secure the system. In addition, National Grid has the option to procure further demand side balancing reserve for 2016/17.