Asked by: Allan Dorans (Scottish National Party - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
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 regulate the cost of (a) domestic and (b) non-domestic heating oil.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It is essential that consumers of heating oil get a fair deal. There is an open market for the supply of both domestic and non-domestic heating oil in the UK. This provides the best long-term guarantee of competitive prices.
Asked by: Allan Dorans (Scottish National Party - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason domestic feed-in tariffs are not issued on a variable rather than yearly basis to better reflect the variability of the electricity market.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave my Hon. Friend the Member for Stockton South on 28 February 2022 to Question 125580.
Asked by: Allan Dorans (Scottish National Party - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
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 Ofgem domestic feed-in tariff rates accurately reflect energy market pricing for those who generate energy.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave my Hon. Friend the Member for Stockton South on 28 February 2022 to Question 125580.
Asked by: Allan Dorans (Scottish National Party - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the context of wood pellets being sourced from Estonia and burnt at the Drax power station, what his policy is on the minimum number of trees per hectare that need to be replanted for a forest to count as sustainably managed.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In accordance with the Government’s strict sustainability criteria, biomass needs to be sourced from areas managed in a way that is consistent with sustainable forest management practices, irrespective of the sourcing location. Further information on sustainable forest management that informs the UK’s sustainability criteria can be found at:
https://foresteurope.org/workstreams/sustainable-forest-management/#.
Asked by: Allan Dorans (Scottish National Party - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of megawatt-hours of power produced by Drax power station from burning wood pellets in the last year and (b) tonnes of CO2 created by that supply chain; and whether he has made an estimate of the equivalent supply chain carbon cost in the event that that power station was still burning coal.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Data regarding the electricity generation in megawatt-hours derived from burning wood pellets at the Drax power station is not available due to commercial confidentiality.
The supply chain target for biomass supported under the Renewable Obligation and Contracts for Difference scheme is 240 kgCO2eq per MWh (from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2020), and 200 kgCO2eq per MWh (from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2025), though generators may perform lower than that.
The Department does not hold supply chain emissions data for coal.
Asked by: Allan Dorans (Scottish National Party - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of jobs which have been lost as a result of counterfeiting and piracy in the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Freeman
In a study published in 2019, the OECD estimate the job losses in the UK that result in the retail and wholesale sector due to counterfeit and pirated imports in 2016 totalled almost 60,000.