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 the (a) effect on public health and (b) resulting costs to the taxpayers of the Government's future financing of nuclear projects.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Nuclear safety is a top priority for the Government and is kept under regular review. We have a world class regulatory system, and all operators are answerable to robust and independent regulators – the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and the relevant environmental regulators. If the ONR consider that any nuclear reactor is not safe it will not be allowed to be built. Proposed new nuclear projects must also represent clear value for money for both consumers and taxpayers.
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 level of expenditure his Department has assessed to be necessary to ensure the safe storage of additional waste arising from higher burn nuclear fuel in future nuclear projects; who will incur those costs and for how long.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Higher activity radioactive waste created by future nuclear projects will be disposed of in a geological disposal facility. Geological disposal is internationally recognised as the safest available option for disposing of higher activity waste. Operators of new nuclear power stations will have a statutory requirement to ensure adequate financing arrangements are in place to meet the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management and disposal costs.
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 his Department has suspended (a) archival and (b) destruction of (i) files and (ii) other records on Post Office’s Horizon computer system.
Answered by Paul Scully
Any relevant information located by BEIS that may be in scope of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry recently launched will be retained by the Department until, at least, the conclusion of the Inquiry.
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 steps he is taking to ensure the energy regulatory framework supports (a) Greater Manchester’s 2038 carbon-neutral target and (b) distribution network operators’ net zero innovation plans; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on consumers’ (i) willingness and (ii) ability to pay for energy efficiency improvements through their energy bills.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Local Energy Programme launched in 2017 is supporting Local Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the clean energy economy. BEIS has allocated £500k directly to Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2017 to develop innovative business models?(for decarbonisation)?and public sector leadership (for climate change and zero carbon targets) in support of their 2038 target, which are then shared with other Local Authorities. We are currently working with Greater Manchester Combined Authority on innovative technologies and local energy market approaches to accelerate Manchester’s progress towards net-zero.
The regulatory price control for Distribution Network Operators is by law a matter for Ofgem, the independent energy regulator. BEIS is working with Ofgem to ensure that Net Zero innovation and new technologies can assist network operators to meet increased consumer demand for low carbon energy sources.
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 the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the South Asian wedding industry in the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government recognises the significant impacts that the current COVID-19 outbreak is having on the whole of the hospitality sector and is therefore providing a range of support measures to help businesses across this sector. These measures include grants and business rates relief, VAT deferral, business interruption and bounce back loans, as well as job retention and self-employed income support. Full details of all the measures have been published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19.
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 the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the wedding industry.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government recognises the significant impacts that the current COVID-19 outbreak is having on the whole of the hospitality sector and is therefore providing a range of support measures to help businesses across this sector. These measures include grants and business rates relief, VAT deferral, business interruption and bounce back loans, as well as job retention and self-employed income support. Full details of all the measures have been published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19.
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 make it his policy extend statutory maternity leave until (a) nurseries and (b) childcare facilities have re-opened.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UK’s Maternity Leave offer is amongst the most generous in the World –up to 52 weeks of leave are available, 39 weeks of which are paid –and we currently have no plans to extend it.
We understand the impacts that the pandemic and social distancing have on parents, especially where they are doing the difficult job of balancing work and childcare. This is a problem facing all parents and not just those with babies, we do not therefore, believe that extending maternity leave is the right way to address this.
We have however, introduced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to support those who cannot work due to the current pandemic. The scheme allows individuals who cannot work due to childcare responsibilities to be furloughed by their employer, if both the employer and employee agree.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that wedding venue operators with rateable values above the cap for the Small Business Grant Fund have access to other covid-19 related grant funding.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Small Business Grant Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund are part of Government’s unprecedented package of support for businesses to help with their ongoing business costs in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19.
Businesses that were in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief as of 11 March 2020 will be eligible for the Small Business Grants Fund. Under the Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Grants Fund, businesses that would have been in receipt of the Expanded Retail Discount Scheme with properties that have a rateable value of under £51,000 are eligible for cash grants of up to £25,000 per property. Businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 or over are not eligible for this scheme.
Businesses which are not eligible for the grant schemes should be able to benefit from other measures, including:
Businesses can search for available support via the business support finder tool at: https://www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder.
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 his Department provides to workers coming to the end of their statutory (a) maternity and (b) paternity entitlement on returning to work during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
Employees who end their statutory maternity or paternity entitlement and return to work during the COVID-19 outbreak have the same rights as before.
All employees on family-related leave (including Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave, Shared Parental Leave, Paternity Leave and Parental Bereavement Leave) have a right to return to the same job if they have been off work for 26 weeks or less and a right to return to the same, or a similar job, if they have been off work for more than 26 weeks. This has not changed.
For those on Maternity Leave, the normal redundancy protections apply. Maternity discrimination in the workplace is unlawful and there are clear regulations in place which every employer must follow.
The Government is committed to protecting jobs and has provided unprecedented support to employers to retain their employees and protect the UK economy through implementing the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Employees returning from family-related leave can be furloughed if they and their employer agree to this.
In terms of what support employees can expect if they are returning to the workplace, the Government is working to ensure that all workers have the confidence they need to go back to work. New ‘COVID-19 secure’ guidelines are available to UK employers to help them ensure workplaces are as safe as possible. The guidelines have been developed with input from a range of stakeholders, including Public Health England (PHE) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
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 funding he has allocated to supporting people to gain expertise and technical qualifications in retrofitting carbon inefficient buildings.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
BEIS has not, thus far, provided direct funding for training or qualifications in building retrofit. The Department has, however, funded the development of improved design and installation standards and has created a market for individuals and businesses who install to those standards through the Energy Company Obligation.