Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 phasing out coal from the energy sector to 2024.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
We have confirmed our commitment to put an end to unabated coal power generation from 2025, and on 4 February 2020 my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced the Government’s intention to consult on bringing forward the coal closure date to 1 October 2024. A closure in 2024 would mean that in 10 years we have reduced our reliance on unabated coal generation from around a third of our electricity supply to zero. We will consult on this in due course.
As a result of our existing policies, including carbon pricing and our support for renewables, we have already made great headway in reducing our reliance on coal, which fell from 39% in 2012 to less than 3% in 2019.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has he made of the potential merits of the energy price cap for consumers in (a) the Scottish Borders, (b) Scotland and (c) the rest of the UK.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government introduced the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act on 1January 2019 to protect GB consumers on default tariffs This followed the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) two-year investigation into the energy market, which concluded that energy customers on default and standard variable tariffs were being significantly overcharged.
The cap currently protects around 11 million households on default tariffs across GB. Ofgem estimate that the tariff cap is saving consumers between £75 and £100 per year on average and a total of £1 billion annually.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 paragraph 2.131 of the Budget 2020 Red Book, how many additional civil servants Ofgem plans to employ in Glasgow.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Ofgem currently employs 385 staff plus 20-40 contractors in its Glasgow office. Ofgem is committed to their presence in Glasgow and are exploring new office premises, but do not have a specific target number of staff to be based there.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support Companies House is giving to businesses to assist with responding to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
On 25 March Companies House announced that all businesses could apply for a three-month extension for filing their accounts, with those citing issues around COVID-19 immediately granted an extension. To support this measure Companies House developed a fast-tracked, online system that takes businesses just 15 minutes to complete. There have so far been over 50,000 successful applications. This was supplemented on 28 March when the Government announced it will offer further extensions should circumstances require.
On 16 April Companies House announced that companies issued with a late filing penalty due to COVID-19 will have appeals treated sympathetically and that it has temporarily paused the strike off process to prevent companies being dissolved. This will help ensure businesses struggling to update their records because of the crisis, are not struck off the register.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many successful applications have been made to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme opened for applications on 23 March. As of 21 April, over £2.8bn worth of loans have been issued to over 16,000 businesses.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans the Government has to rearrange COP 26 in Glasgow.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Dates for a rescheduled conference in 2021, hosted in Glasgow by the UK in partnership with Italy, will be set out in due course following further discussion with parties.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has been made of the performance of the energy system in meeting changes in demand due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Great Britain has a reliable energy system and maintaining a safe and secure energy supply is a key priority for this Government.
Since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, we have been in daily contact with gas and electricity operators, the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO), National Grid Gas (NGG), and Ofgem, to ensure our energy system is able to respond to changes in demand during this unprecedented time.
The ESO and NGG have procedures in place to manage the effects of a pandemic and are closely monitoring electricity and gas demand over this period. Currently, electricity and gas margins are adequate and there is sufficient supply to meet demand.
The implementation of the Government policies to delay the spread of Covid-19 is resulting in a measurable reduction in the national demand for energy. The ESO recently published its Summer Outlook report to help energy companies with their planning, as well as set out the procedures it has in place to manage the anticipated effects on supply and demand during the pandemic.
We are confident that electricity and gas supplies will keep flowing.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's plans are for decarbonising heating systems in existing commercial properties.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department is planning to publish a Heat and Building Strategy later this year, which will set out the immediate actions we will take for reducing emissions from buildings, including existing commercial properties. These include the deployment of energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating as part of an ambitious programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions on how we achieve the mass transition to low-carbon heat. We are developing policies to deliver low carbon heating in the 2020s and put us on the pathway to delivering net zero by 2050. We are spending £2.8bn under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) between 2018 and 2021 to encourage the deployment of low carbon heating in homes and businesses. The Non-domestic RHI scheme has been open to commercial, industrial, public sector, not for profit and community generators of renewable heat since November 2011.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's plans are for decarbonising heating systems in existing residential properties.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department is planning to publish a Heat and Building Strategy later this year, which will set out the immediate actions we will take for reducing emissions from buildings, including existing residential properties. These include the deployment of energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating as part of an ambitious programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions on how we achieve the mass transition to low-carbon heat. We are developing policies to deliver low carbon heating in the 2020s and put us on the pathway to delivering net zero by 2050.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on the economy of reducing the working week to 32 hours.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
A shorter week can create practical challenges in treating all parts of the organisation fairly, and may even limit some employees’ flexibility. While there is evidence that a shorter working week can lead to higher productivity, the extent to which this would offset lost output from reduced hours is unclear.