Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much her Department has paid by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland in (i) 2018-2019, (ii) 2019-2020, (iii) 2020-2021, (iv) 2021-2022 and (v) 2022-2023 financial year.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We are unable to provide a breakdown in the manner requested as the data is not held in that format. However, full details of financial assistance provided under the Act are published annually in the Industrial Development Act annual report, copies of which are available in the House libraries.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what (a) criteria and (b) assessment process was used to determine the award of up to £75 million to BMW made under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The award to BMW met the following criteria;
The assessment process followed HM Treasury Green Book Appraisal Guidance including detailed due diligence conducted by an independent third party. The assessment process also included scrutiny by the Industrial Development Advisory Board.
The award to BMW supports a total investment of £575m by the company and will secure production of new electric models of the Mini at the plant in Oxford.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the total revenue accrued by the Exchequer since the introduction of the benefit cap; and how many and what proportion of households are impacted in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) each parliamentary constituency in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since the introduction of the benefit cap in April 2013 to November 2023 (the latest data available) an estimated £2.2 billion has been accrued in Housing Benefit (HB) and Universal Credit (UC) expenditure in Great Britain due to the benefit cap.
Official statistics on the number and proportion of working-age households in receipt of UC and HB who are capped up to November 2023 are available on Stat-Xplore for the requested geographies. Official Statistics on the total number of households in Great Britain on HB or UC for the same geographies are also available on Stat-Xplore up to November 2023. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Benefit cap statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Department for Communities.
Notes:
Source: Benefit Cap Official Statistics up to Nov-23 published in Mar-24
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of households impacted by the two child limit where one adult is in work in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales, (d) Northern Ireland and (e) each parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is provided in the attached spreadsheet.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Scottish Government has made a formal request for the transfer of the (a) powers and (b) associated budget to provide financial assistance to industry under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 to the Scottish Parliament.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The power under s.8 so far as it is exercisable in or as regards Scotland, was transferred to Scottish Ministers by section 53 of the Scotland Act 1998, effective from 01/07/99. As such, no formal request for transfer of powers or associated budget is required. The power remains exercisable in Scotland by the UK Secretary of State by virtue of section 56(1)(h) of the 1998 Act; and can also be exercised concurrently by the Secretary of State and Scottish Ministers in relation to financial assistance for shipping services carrying passengers between the Highlands and Islands and Northern Ireland by virtue of S.I. 2002/1630(S. 6).
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much her Department has paid by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 in compensation for indirect costs associated with the (a) UK Emissions Trading System and (b) Carbon Emissions Tax and Carbon Price Support mechanism to (i) British Steel Ltd, (ii) Celsa Manufacturing UK Ltd, (iii) CF Fertilisers UK Ltd, (iv) DS Smith Paper Ltd, (v) Kimberly Clark Ltd, (vi) Outokumpu Stainless Ltd, (vii) Palm Paper Ltd, (viii) Runcorn MCP Ltd, (ix) SABIC UK Petrochemicals Ltd, (x) Tata Steel UK Ltd and (xi) UPM-Kymmene UK Ltd in each year since January 2021.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The total compensation these companies have received for indirect costs of the (a) UK Emissions Trading System and (b) Carbon Emissions Tax and Carbon Price Support mechanism is as follows: (i) Jan-2021 to March-2022: £165,174,750, (ii) April-2022 to March-2023: £ 114,934,773, (iii) April-2023 to present: £100,952,928.
We are unable to provide the spending for individual companies or under section 8 alone as this would lead to commercially sensitive information being released.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much her Department has paid by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act n982 in compensation for indirect costs of the (a) UK Emissions Trading System and (b) Carbon Emissions Tax and Carbon Price Support mechanism to (i) INEOS Chemical Grangemouth Ltd and (ii) INEOS ChlorVinyls Ltd in each year since January 2021.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The total compensation these companies have received for indirect costs of the (a) UK Emissions Trading System and (b) Carbon Emissions Tax and Carbon Price Support mechanism is as follows: (i) Jan-2021 to March-2022: £165,174,750, (ii) April-2022 to March-2023: £ 114,934,773, (iii) April-2023 to present: £100,952,928.
We are unable to provide the spending for individual companies or under section 8 alone as this would lead to commercially sensitive information being released.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the energy price cap on household default tariffs on (a) the average annual energy bill for households and (b) trends in the level of profits of energy companies.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Decisions on the price cap are for independent regulator Ofgem. Average energy bills are published online at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65c65524cc433b0011a90ba8/table_221.xlsx
A break down of the components of the price cap, including the earnings allowance, may be found at www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-price-cap.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost to the public purse was of the Household Support Fund since 2021; and what the total distribution of the fund per constituency over the same period.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A total of £3bn including Barnett impact has been announced since October 2021 to enable the Household Support Fund to run in England. This includes over £2.5 bn allocated to Local Authorities in England. It is for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.
Allocations are made at an upper tier Local Authority, level based on population size and levels of deprivation. Allocations by Local Authority for schemes running between October 2021 to March 2024 can be found at the following links:
Management information for 6th October 2021 to 31st March 2022: Household Support Fund management information: 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Management information for 1st April 2022 to 30th September 2022: Household Support Fund 2 management information for 1 April to 30 September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Management information for 1st October 2022 to 31st March 2023: Household Support Fund 3 management information for 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Allocations for the period 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund Grant Determination 2023 No 31/6496 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing universal credit by 50% in financial year 2024-25.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to make such an assessment.