Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
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 ensure that people who live on mobile home sites receive energy grants rather than the site owner.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is aware that not all households have electricity provided through a domestic electricity supply contract, such as mobile home residents. The Government raised this in its technical consultation on the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Households without a domestic electricity supply contract are not eligible for the scheme and the Government is exploring options for other ways in which they might receive similar support. The responses to this consultation are being analysed and a response will be published later in the summer.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
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 planning to take to support fish and chip shops; and what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding by the National Federation of Fish Friers that one third of those shops are likely to close in the coming months.
Answered by Paul Scully
We recognise the impact the pandemic and inflation is having on businesses of all sizes and the Government is in regular contact with business groups and suppliers to understand the challenges they face and explore ways to protect businesses.
This Department is working closely with Defra, who lead on food supply chain and is in regular discussions with the National Federation of Fish Friers to understand better the impacts on hospitality businesses including fish and chip shops.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
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 (a) the electric vehicles industry and (b) local authorities on provision for electric vehicle charging points for properties with no off-street parking provision.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government continues to work closely with vehicle manufactures on the transition to zero emission vehicles.
Ministers regularly engage with industry, including vehicle manufacturers, energy companies and chargepoint operators as well as local authorities (LAs) regarding electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure. For example, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister hosted an event at the Global Investment Summit on 19 October which was attended by leading British and global companies involved in the UK’s electric vehicle revolution. The meeting was attended by my Rt. Hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Secretary of State for Transport, and the Secretary of State for International Trade, and by my Hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury.
The Secretary of State for Transport wrote to the chief executives of all UK LAs in February this year to update them on the funding available to them. My Hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Transport also wrote to the Chief Executives and Leaders of 20 councils that had a lower than average chargepoint per head of population to encourage them to engage with OZEV officials. Since this letter, officials have hosted several meetings with members of these councils, providing support and advice. Officials from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) have a programme of activities to engage and support LAs, to help mainstream local capability and leadership and ensure LAs are working to support chargepoint rollout in their areas.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to implement further measures to prevent the use of postcode location centroids that are determined on private property.
Answered by Paul Scully
BEIS has responsibility for the Arms Length Bodies who collect, curate, and maintain the foundational data that underpins the use of post codes and addressing.
Ordnance Survey (working in a consortium of members including Royal Mail, Office for National Statistics, Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland, National Records of Scotland) publishes 1.7m centroids for postcodes across the UK.
The location of the postcode centroid is automatically generated by averaging more granular address data and 'snapping' to the nearest address – which includes residential properties – in order to ensure it sits on a building, rather than potentially in the middle of a road, a lake or a field. This was designed to support the primary use case for post code and address-based navigation (i.e. getting to the right approximate location). Ordnance Survey are currently exploring how they locate the centroid for postcodes in their Code Point products and would welcome engagement from any interested parties.
Ordnance Survey also publishes the location of every individual address in its AddressBase products, which is used by emergency services and delivery companies to navigate to the correct property more efficiently and effectively.