Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 energy dependency on foreign states.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Great Britain has one of the most reliable electricity systems in the world. It benefits from a diverse electricity mix, which contributes to security of supply by ensuring no dependence on any single market participant for the power consumed.
Interconnection with overseas markets forms an important part of Great Britain’s electricity mix. However, the majority of power consumed in this country is still domestically produced.
Around half of Great Britain’s annual gas demand is met through domestic production and most imports come from close proximity suppliers such as Norway.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 sufficient provision of skilled alternative heat source technologies engineers to help facilitate the move away from gas boilers to new technologies, such as ground or air source heat pumps.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is working closely with industry and the education sector to ensure that high-quality training is available for heat pump installers. This includes training for new heating engineers, and for existing heating engineers who do not yet have heat pump training.
As part of the Green Homes Grant Skills Competition, the Government awarded more than £6 million to support training for tradespeople delivering green home energy improvements, including heat pump installations.
We are also supporting the industry-led development of new heat pump upskilling courses for existing heating engineers. By the end of 2021, we expect industry to have the capacity to upskill thousands of heating installers per year to work on heat pumps.
Furthermore, BEIS together with the Department for Education is also working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) to ensure that apprenticeships and T-Levels contain high quality heat pump training. Additionally, we are working with the Association of Colleges to ensure that further education providers are aware of future needs for heat pump installer skills, and to understand barriers to providing relevant training so that they can be better addressed.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 create opportunities for young people in (a) the nuclear sector and (b) the wider green energy industry.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
BEIS is a member of the industry-led Nuclear Skills Strategic Group (NSSG), which brings together employers, government, regulators, and trades unions to address the skills challenge and drives major skills developments in the nuclear sector. The NSSG has developed a long-term Nuclear Skills Strategic Plan which incorporates a variety of activities, including those to recruit more young people in the nuclear sector. As part of the Strategic Plan, the following are expected to be delivered.
We continue to engage and support as the plan is delivered.
We are determined to seize the once-in-a-generation economic opportunities of the net zero transition, delivering a green industrial revolution, by creating new business opportunities and supporting up to 2 million green jobs by 2030 across all regions of the UK. In order to ensure we have the skilled workforce to deliver net zero and our Ten Point Plan, we have launched the Green Jobs Taskforce, working in partnership with business, skills providers, and unions to advise on how we can deliver the green jobs of the future.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 help businesses in the construction sector tackle (a) supply chain issues and (b) the resulting increased costs.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is aware that a range of building materials are in short supply nationally. This is driven by demand and increased global competition to secure supplies.
In light of this, and in view of more local disruptions in the supply of some products, the Construction Leadership Council’s Coronavirus Task Force has established a Product Availability Working Group, comprised of product manufacturers, builders’ merchants and suppliers, contractors of all sizes, and housebuilders. The Task Force continues to monitor the supply and demand of products, and identify those in short supply.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 UK nuclear fuel needs are filled by UK produced fuels.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a world leader in the nuclear fuel cycle. As we transition from the needs of the current nuclear fleet, we are carefully considering with operators, fuel producers and the R&D community how best to meet the needs of future nuclear power stations, including opportunities provided by small and advanced modular reactors.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with Chancellor of the Exchequer on support for the (a) tourism and (b) hospitality sectors during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Answered by Paul Scully
This Department and our colleagues at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are in regular contact with HM Treasury colleagues to discuss the impact of support measures on the tourism and hospitality sectors.
We recognise the difficulties faced by businesses in these sectors and will continue to engage with stakeholders and across Government to assess how we can most effectively support them.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 support businesses seeking to hire new employees during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
This Government is committed to both protecting existing jobs as well as supporting job creation to ensure we build back better after this crisis. At the heart of these plans is a £30 billion investment in jobs. In his Summer Economic Update, the Chancellor – as part of his Plan for Jobs - announced a £3 billion investment in green infrastructure to create thousands of green jobs, a cut to Stamp Duty to support an industry that employs almost 750,000 people, a £2 billion investment in the Kickstart scheme to get our youth into work, as well as doubling the number of work coaches and tripling the number of traineeships.
Our investment includes:
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what guidance he has issued to (a) businesses and (b) service providers on making social distancing measures accessible for blind and partially sighted people.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has published guidance on safer working for a range of working environments, available on GOV.UK. The guidance does not change employers’ obligations to make reasonable adjustments for those with disabilities.
Our guidance also does not replace existing employment, health and safety or equalities legislation. It provides information to employers on how best to meet these responsibilities in the context of COVID-19.
The safer workplaces guidance provides some suggestions to help employers make their workplaces COVID-19 secure for their employees, visitors and customers. We expect all businesses to approach reopening in a sensible way, taking account of the Government’s guidance and discussing with neighbouring businesses and their local authorities where applicable.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 timeframe is for the publication of the energy white paper.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has stated his intention to publish the energy white paper in the summer. We will provide more details in due course.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
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 support businesses through the transition period as the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Following my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s agreement to an extension to Article 50 until October 31 2019, we will continue to provide businesses with the information and advice they need to prepare for EU Exit.
Extensive engagement will continue to take place between Government and industry in preparation for EU exit. Through various channels, BEIS Ministers and officials have been engaging widely with businesses and trade associations each week on EU Exit. In particular, our communications and provision of materials to intermediaries is provided to ensure business obtain information quickly and efficiently.
We will continue to use the public information campaign which directs businesses to GOV.UK/euexit where they are able to find the latest advice and information on many aspects of leaving the EU that may affect them and outlines the steps they need to take.
We recognise the uncertainty that businesses have expressed and we are committed to maintaining and improving the excellent UK business environment. The British Business Bank programmes are supporting more than £5.9 billion of finance to over 82,000 smaller businesses.
Further, at Budget 2018, the Start-up Loans programme was extended by one year to April 2021 meaning that another 10,000 loans will be made to entrepreneurs. We are also currently taking action to reduce the costs of doing business, including cutting corporation tax to 19%.
Businesses can also apply for HMRC grants, depending on their circumstances to support private customs intermediaries, and traders to increase their capacities, and train employees in preparation for EU exit. Business can apply for this funding from HMRC until 31 May 2019.