Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the full-life costs of the Rolls Royce Small Nuclear Reactor programme, including the disposal of nuclear waste during and after decommissioning.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has made a grant of £210 million to Rolls Royce SMR ltd to undertake phase two of the Low Cost Nuclear programme. This has been match funded by industry and investors, and will support the further development and assessment of the Rolls Royce SMR design up to 2025.
Whilst initial costing estimates have been made by Rolls Royce SMR Ltd, a key output of the programme is data that will enable more detailed whole life cost analysis, which could be used to inform any potential deployment decisions in the next parliament.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding is being provided to train and re-train the workforce in the North West needed for the Rolls Royce Small Nuclear Reactor programme.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has made a grant of £210 million to Rolls Royce SMR ltd to undertake phase two of the Low Cost Nuclear programme. This has been match funded by industry and investors, and will support the further development and assessment of the Rolls Royce SMR design up to 2025.
Whilst initial costing estimates have been made by Rolls Royce SMR Ltd, a key output of the programme is data that will enable more detailed whole life cost analysis, which could be used to inform any potential deployment decisions in the next parliament.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 whether the level of discount offered by the Warm Home Discount scheme is adequate for people in need experiencing additional energy price rises from April 2022.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Warm Home Discount is funded by energy suppliers, who generally recoup the costs from customers’ energy bills. However, the Government sets the spending target each year. The target is set to balance providing significant rebates to as many households as possible, while minimising the impact on consumers’ bills. For this year, 2021/22, the overall spending target is £354 million.
Given the fixed funding available for the scheme, increasing the rebate amount for households would reduce the number of households receiving support. Following a consultation last year, the Government decided to keep the rebate amount at £140 this winter to maximise the number of households that the scheme is able to reach. This year, we expect around 2.2 million households across the country will receive rebates.
The Government recently consulted on the future of the scheme beyond 2022. This consultation included a proposal to increase the rebate amount to £150 from the 2022/23 scheme year onwards, balancing increasing the value of the rebate against ensuring that as many fuel poor households as possible are able to access this much-needed support.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 reopen proposals to reform the Warm Homes Discount Scheme for people in need of support as a result of the increase in energy prices.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has consulted on reforms to the Warm Home Discount that will provide significant improvements to the scheme’s operation and more support to fuel poor households. They will improve the fuel poverty targeting of the scheme and enable more fuel poor households to receive a rebate.
By increasing the funding to £475 million (in 2020 prices) per year, around 3 million households will receive rebates on their energy bills every winter – this is 780,000 more households than under the current scheme. Through data matching, the vast majority of eligible households would be entitled to receive the rebate automatically, rather than having to apply. Rebates would also be increased to £150 per household, compared to £140 currently, balancing increasing the value of the rebate against ensuring that as many fuel poor households as possible are able to access this much-needed support.
The Government’s response to the consultation will be published in the coming months, with any reforms coming into force from the 2022/23 scheme year.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 implications for his policies of the IEA report entitled Net Zero by 2050, A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector; and whether his Department plans to take steps in response to its conclusions.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We welcome the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 report, which sets out a clear roadmap to net zero emissions and shares many of the priorities we have committed to in the UK’s Energy White Paper and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, as well as in our role as COP Presidency.
In addition to our existing ambitious plans, we will publish a new comprehensive Net Zero Strategy in the lead up to COP26, setting out the Government’s vision for transitioning to a net zero economy by 2050, making the most of new growth and employment opportunities across the UK.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of correspondence sent by hon. Members to his Department received a substantive response within the service standard in each month of (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
BEIS has a 15 working day target to provide a substantive response to hon. Members. The Cabinet Office will soon formally publish the correspondence performance data of Departments for the years: 2018, 2019 and 2020. In line with this publication, the Department has achieved the following annual results: 2018: 57% answered within 15 working days, 2019: 86% and 2020: 67%.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support he is providing to the English language teaching sector to mitigate the effect of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has made substantial business support available throughout the Covid-19 pandemic including grants, loans, reliefs and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Although English Language Schools are not eligible for the government’s Restart Grant programme – which is aimed at the non-essential retail, hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym sectors – they may be eligible for support via the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). ARG provides Local Authorities with funding to put in place discretionary support that suits their local area.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) increasing the Debt Relief Order vehicle value threshold to £2,000 and (b) excluding mobility scooters from the threshold.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has recently consulted on proposals to increase the eligibility criteria for Debt Relief Orders to help more people deal with their financial difficulties and to provide a fresh start. The consultation includes proposals to increase the total amount of debt allowable in a Debt Relief Order but does not include proposals for any increase in the monetary limit for motor vehicles or the exclusion of mobility scooters. Following the closure of the consultation on 26 February 2021, the Government is reviewing the responses.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the Insolvency Service to commit to review every three years the Debt Relief Order monetary eligibility criteria to ensure continued access to DROs.
Answered by Paul Scully
No assessment has been made of potential merits of requiring the Insolvency Service to commit to review the Debt Relief Order monetary eligibility criteria every three years and there are no plans to do so. However, the Government keeps the legislative framework for insolvency under regular review.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what grant funding is available to the social housing sector for (a) the installation of solar panels and (b) energy efficiency improvements.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The 2019 Conservative manifesto committed to a £3.8billion Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund over 10 years.
The Summer Economic Update announced a £50 million fund to demonstrate innovative approaches to retrofitting social housing at scale and upgrading the energy performance of poorer-performing homes. A further £60 million has been allocated at the Spending Review (SR) to continue the development of the scheme into next year, in line with manifesto commitments, and further funding will be confirmed at the multi-year SR.