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Written Question
Buildings: Carbon Emissions
Monday 11th May 2020

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 the Government is taking to ensure that carbon inefficient buildings are retrofitted.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

Government has a number of policies and proposals to improve the energy performance of buildings, for example:

  • Our current Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme and its successor will drive £6bn of additional investment to support energy improvements in low-income, vulnerable and fuel poor households between 2018 and 2028.

  • The Private Rented Sector Minimum standard regulations introduced on 1?April 2018 will improve the energy performance of rented properties. The regulations require landlords of domestic and non-domestic rental properties to bring their properties to EPC Band E or above. We recently consulted on raising the minimum energy standards for non-domestic privately rented properties to meet a preferred target of EPC B by 2030, and plan to publish the Government Response later this year. We will consult on tightening the minimum energy standards for domestic privately rented properties in due course.

  • We have committed to further consultations on introducing mandatory in-use energy performance ratings for non-domestic buildings; and on requirements for mortgage lenders to help households improve the energy efficiency of the homes they lend to.

  • Public sector organisations can access the funding for decarbonisation projects, including certain retrofits through the Public Sector Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme. The capital pot for England stands at £312m as of the end of 2019/20 and is planned to increase to a total of £385 million by 2020/21.
Written Question
Contact Tracing: Computer Software
Tuesday 5th May 2020

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 the Government will take to ensure that businesses do not penalise individuals who do not use the NHS contact-tracing app.

Answered by Paul Scully

As the Solicitor General explained in Parliament on 28 April, the contact tracing app will be for voluntary participation only.

An ethical advisory board will be convened to monitor the use of the app.

No private identifying information will be kept on it and it will be data protection compliant.

Written Question
Carbon Emissions
Tuesday 3rd March 2020

Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

What recent assessment he has made of trends in the rate of reduction in UK emissions.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

In the UK we have shown it is possible to achieve economic growth while reducing emissions. Since 1990, we have cut our emissions by 43%, while growing our economy by more than three quarters - decarbonising faster than any other G20 country.

Between 2017 and 2018 alone, we reduced emissions in the power sector by 6.6%.

Written Question
Fuel Poverty: Greater Manchester
Tuesday 28th January 2020

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 many households in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) the Manchester, Gorton constituency are currently living in fuel poverty.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

Figures for Greater Manchester can been derived from table 4 of the Fuel Poverty sub-national tables using the 10 Metropolitan districts – Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Thameside, Trafford and Wigan – as listed by the ONS (https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/datasets/local-authority-district-to-county-april-2019-lookup-in-england).

Individual constituency data can be found in table 5 of the Fuel Poverty sub-national tables at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sub-regional-fuel-poverty-data-2019.