Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps is he taking to address energy companies that are failing to deliver Energy Bills Support Scheme vouchers to traditional prepayment meter customers in a timely manner.
Answered by Graham Stuart
On 4th December, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to all energy suppliers with customers on traditional prepayment meters. He reiterated the importance of ensuring these customers receive their vouchers and, where needed, receive prompt service and accurate information from supplier call centres. Data for October indicates that all vouchers were dispatched by suppliers.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 ensure the availability of new electricity connections for businesses.
Answered by Graham Stuart
New electricity connections are delivered by network companies under a regulatory framework overseen by the energy regulator, Ofgem. Ofgem is ensuring that network companies are releasing capacity and accelerating connection timescales for businesses across Great Britain, including through improved modelling of network impacts of new connections, streamlining connection procedures and procuring flexible services.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 merits of strengthening employees' rights to flexible working from the start of employment.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is currently consulting on measures that would increase the availability and support the uptake of flexible working arrangements, including whether to extend the right to request flexible working to employees from their first day of employment. The consultation closes on 1 December 2021 and the Government will issue its response in due course.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 provide a timescale for the allocation of funding under the Clean Steel Fund.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
In its response to the Call for Evidence on the Clean Steel Fund, the steel industry indicated a preference for the Fund to start in 2023.
The Government recognises the vital role that the sector plays in all areas of the UK and our economy and will continue to work with the sector to support its decarbonisation. The Department announced the Clean Steel Fund in 2019 and a number of options have been explored, together with ongoing feedback from industry.
In March 2021, the Government published the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy in which we committed to working with the Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035 and the business environment necessary to support the transition. We will provide further information in due course.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to his Answer of 22 September 2021 to Question 51016, how much funding from the public purse has been diverted through relief schemes to the steel sector to help reduce the effect of recent energy price increases on that sector.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The value of the schemes was £122m in 2020.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 encourage inward investment into the UK’s steel sector to aid the transition to net zero carbon emissions.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government recognises the importance of the UK steel sector as a foundation industry and the role it plays in the supply chain for other important advanced manufacturing sectors in the UK, as well as for direct and indirect jobs across the country.
Decarbonising the sector is a core part of the Government’s plans to meet its stated carbon emission reduction targets, for supporting local economic growth and for our levelling up agenda.
The Steel Council was reconstituted in March 2021. This forum offers the Government and industry the opportunity to work towards creating an achievable, long-term plan to support the sector’s transition to a competitive, sustainable, and low carbon future.
The Government has announced a £250 million Clean Steel Fund to support the UK’s steel sector to transition to lower carbon iron and steel production, through new technologies and processes, placing the sector on a pathway consistent with the UK Climate Change Act. Our expectation is that the Fund will provide a proportion of the investment for projects, with the rest funded by industry.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 reduce the UK’s industrial energy prices.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to minimising energy costs for businesses to ensure our economy remains strong and competitive. We deliver relief schemes to reduce the cumulative impact of some energy and climate change policies on UK’s industrial energy prices for eligible energy intensive industries, such as steel, chemicals, and glass manufacturing.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 bring forward legislative proposals to create a single enforcement body for the enforcement of the national minimum wage.
Answered by Paul Scully
HM Revenue and Customs already effectively enforces the minimum wage. Since 2015, HMRC has ordered employers to return £100m to 1 million workers who had been underpaid.
The Government have been unequivocal in our commitment to protect and enhance workers’ rights as build back better from the pandemic and to bring forward legislative proposals to better protect vulnerable workers and create a level playing-field for the majority of employers complying with the law.
As laid out in our manifesto, legislating to establish a Single Enforcement Body for employment rights will be a central part of our efforts to achieve this ambition.
We have already made good progress on this by publishing our response to the consultation, which sets out high level proposals for the body. As laid out in our response, this new single enforcement body will bring together three existing bodies: the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and HMRC’s National Minimum Wage Enforcement.
We will bring forward further detailed proposals in due course, and in the meantime continue to work with stakeholders to take necessary action to support businesses and protect jobs.