Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 make an estimate of the number of offshore workers who have left the oil and gas sector for roles on higher salaries in the (a) offshore wind and (b) nuclear industry in the last three years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government does not collect data which would allow it to make such estimates.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to estimate the demand for workers in the offshore oil and gas industry in the next two years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has not estimated future demand for workers in the offshore oil and gas industry over the next two years.
The sector’s trade body Offshore Energies UK produces an annual Workforce Insight Report that includes some analysis and discussion of future demand for offshore oil and gas workers. Their 2021 report can be found here : https://oeuk.org.uk/product/workforce-insight-report-2021/.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he is taking steps to encourage additional investment in the life sciences cluster in the North East.
Answered by Jane Hunt
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave him today to Questions 32527 and 32528.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he is taking steps to support life sciences manufacturing in the North East.
Answered by Jane Hunt
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave him today to Questions 32527 and 32528.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to help secure investment in the North East’s life science cluster.
Answered by Jane Hunt
The Life Sciences Vision aims to build upon the UK’s geographic diversity of the Sector, by supporting clusters of excellence like the Northeast.
The Government has supported Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in bringing a £400m investment to Billingham; and awarded a grant to Piramal Healthcare to upgrade facilities in Northumberland.
In March, we launched the £60m Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund to support businesses investing in UK life sciences manufacturing projects. The fund received a large number of applications, including companies in the Northeast. Applications are now under review. We expect to announce the first wave of successful applicants in Autumn.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support life sciences manufacturing in the North East.
Answered by Jane Hunt
In April 2021, the Government launched the £20m Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund (MDMTF). Five companies were awarded funding through the MDMTF, including Piramal Healthcare, which will undertake a facilities upgrade at their Morpeth site in Northumberland.
In March 2022, the Government launched the £60m successor Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) to support businesses investing in life sciences manufacturing projects in the UK. This received many Expressions of Interest and approximately 5% were from companies in the North East. It is expected that the announcement of the first wave of successful applicants will take place in Autumn 2022.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many smart meters have been installed in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The smart meter rollout is making good progress, with 27.8 million smart and advanced meters in homes and small businesses across Great Britain as of the end of December 2021.
The Government’s official statistics on the rollout of smart meters are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/smart-meters-statistics.
These statistics, based on data from energy suppliers, cover all smart meter installations from 2012 onwards.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of energy company meter readers that have lost their jobs in the last ten years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Smart meters are modernising the energy system, bringing an end to estimated bills and manual meter reads, which reduces costs and improves service for consumers.
Energy suppliers are responsible for managing their workforce and the provision of metering and billing services. They have adopted a number of approaches to their changing workforce requirements, including re-training meter readers for other roles such as smart meter installers.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential capacity of the North Sea to assist with (a) ensuring a low cost and low carbon footprint and (b) energy security for the UK.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The North Sea will play an important role in enabling Government to meet the UK’s Carbon Budget 6 and net zero targets whilst delivering low-cost electricity for consumers. 11.3GW of offshore wind is already operating in the UK, the majority of which is in the North Sea with around a further 32GW under construction, or in earlier stages of development in UK waters. Further seabed leases totalling around 25GW were awarded to wind projects in the North Sea in the recent ScotWind leasing round. The Government has since published the British Energy Security Strategy, which sets out how the UK will become more self-sufficient, bolstering our energy security.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 delay the compliance deadline for the 2021 UK ETS scheme, to allow the consultation on free allowances time to conclude.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK Emissions Trading Scheme legislation establishes the legal requirement that the annual deadline for surrendering allowances is 30 April. This deadline is not discretionary and will not be delayed. This clarity regarding the timelines of the compliance cycle enables operators to plan ahead with confidence and ensure that they are able to meet their compliance obligations.
Through both free allocation and auctions, a total of 194 million allowances will have been released before the compliance deadline on 30 April, meaning that the UK ETS is well supplied to meet compliance demand.