Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 help minimise disruption to the wider supply chain during the transition from Energy Company Obligation 3 to Energy Company Obligation 4.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government introduced ECO3 Interim Delivery to help with the transition between ECO3 and ECO4 and to prevent a supply chain hiatus,. As suppliers and installers are familiar with ECO3 requirements, this has provided greater certainty prior to the regulations and final guidance.
In discussions, energy suppliers have confirmed that they have been using ECO3 Interim Delivery.
In addition, Ofgem has published the Full Project Scores and Partial Project Scores in advance of ECO4. This gives industry certainty on what ECO4 activities will be commercially worthwhile, helping to guide suppliers in planning and contracting.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 impact of Government policies on achieving net zero on the cost of energy for the poorest households.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In the Net Zero Strategy, the Government set out four key principles of Net Zero Fairness including ensuring that the most vulnerable are supported by Government during the energy transition.
In the Sustainable Warmth Competition, published in February 2021, the Government outlined its approach to tackling fuel poverty in England. It also recognised that improving the energy efficiency of homes is the most effective way of permanently reducing consumer energy bills and tackling fuel poverty in the long term. The Government is providing £3 billion of funding over this Parliament for low carbon heating and energy efficiency measures to those who need it most. Examples of these schemes include the Local Authority Delivery scheme, the Home Upgrade Grant and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
The Government is also consulting on expanding the Energy Company Obligation Scheme to £1 billion a year from April 2022. This will help an extra 305,000 families with green measures such as insulation and heating, with average energy bill savings of around £290 a year.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 will take to ensure that a transition to net zero remains affordable for people on lower incomes.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has outlined its plans to transition to net zero. Its plans include growing the economy, benefiting everyone by securing home-grown energy supply, establishing new industries and creating jobs in former industrial heartlands.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 potential role of nuclear energy in achieving the Government's net zero emissions targets.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Nuclear energy will be essential to achieving net zero.
Analysis published by BEIS with the Energy White Paper[1] in 2020 shows that, alongside significant amounts of wind and solar, a stable, low-cost electricity system to meet net zero will also require other forms of low-carbon power, including nuclear, to complement the intermittency of those technologies. As outlined in the Net Zero Strategy[2], the Government needs to continue to deploy all known low-carbon technologies at scale over the next decade to ensure optionality is maintained, whilst developing new options to mitigate delivery risk and reduce costs.
The Government has confirmed that it aims to reach a Final Investment Decision on at least one large-scale nuclear project this Parliament and recently announced £210m for Rolls-Royce’s Small Modular Reactor design.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-white-paper-powering-our-net-zero-future.
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 (a) bring forward the review of the UK ETS benchmark for lime production and (b) instruct that the benchmark be based on plants in the UK.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As stated in the Government Response to the Consultation on The Future of UK Carbon Pricing, as part of the Free Allocation Review, we will be looking at possible future changes to benchmarks used within the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS). The review will consider which benchmarks could be best suited for the UK ETS. A call for evidence was launched on 17 March as part of the review and is currently live.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 (a) the impact on the UK lime industry of adopting the EU ETS Phase IV benchmark for lime, (b) the applicability and effectiveness of that EU benchmark for the UK lime industry, and (c) whether carbon reduction to meet that benchmark is achievable with currently available technology.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As stated in the Government Response to the Consultation on The Future of UK Carbon Pricing, initially the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) will use Phase IV EU ETS benchmarks. This ensures continuity for participants for the 2021 launch, ensures that benchmarks are based on sufficiently broad sets of data, and ensures free allocation is awarded on a comparable basis to EU counterparts.
As part of the Free Allocation Review, we will be looking at possible future changes to benchmarks used within the UK ETS. The Review will consider which benchmarks could be best suited for the UK ETS.
A call for evidence was launched on 17 March as part of the review and is currently live.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 plans to take against travel companies and airlines refusing to refund customers for cancellations.
Answered by Paul Scully
Package travel agencies are required to comply with The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, which protect consumers who have bought package holidays. Consumers are entitled to a refund?if forced to cancel a package holiday due to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, which should be issued?within 14 days, depending on the nature of the contract in place. Further information on the rights and responsibilities of consumers and businesses was published on 30 April by the Competition and Markets Authority who have also set up a covid-19 taskforce for consumers to register complaints.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 that airlines and travel companies provide customers with full refunds for cancelled flights and holidays.
Answered by Paul Scully
Package travel agencies are required to comply with The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, which protect consumers who have bought package holidays. Consumers are entitled to a refund?if forced to cancel a package holiday due to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, which should be issued?within 14 days, depending on the nature of the contract in place. Further information on the rights and responsibilities of consumers and businesses was published on 30 April by the Competition and Markets Authority who have also set up a covid-19 taskforce for consumers to register complaints.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the performance of the Year of Engineering 2018 campaign.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Year of Engineering 2018 campaign was a success thanks to the support and enthusiasm of more than 1500 partners right across the sector.
The efforts of our partners – scores of passionate individuals from businesses, professional institutions, charities, schools and colleges - helped the campaign deliver more than five million direct experiences of engineering to 7-16 year olds across the UK, well exceeding our set one million target.
We have seen first-hand that when young people get the chance to enjoy problem-solving activities or meet an engineer face-to-face, they are more likely to consider it as a job. It was fantastic to see that for those young people aware of the campaign, desirability of engineering careers increased substantially – by 35 percentage points for 7-11s and 14 percentage points for 11-16s
We aim to create a lasting and meaningful legacy for the Year of Engineering by continuing to show young people from different backgrounds what they can achieve in engineering. We will work together across the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Education and the Department for Transport and other departments to build on the success of the campaign through a long-term engineering legacy campaign and through continued collaboration across industry.
We need more engineers to help us meet our Grand Challenges to ensure the UK leads the way on the AI and data revolution and the global shift to clean growth, harness the power of innovation to meet the needs of an ageing society and become a world leader in the future of mobility - the way people, goods and services move.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 plans to take to improve the infrastructure for electric vehicles.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s vision is to have one of the best electric vehicle infrastructure networks in the world, growing a network for current and prospective electric vehicle drivers that is affordable, reliable, accessible and secure. The Road to Zero strategy published last year includes new commitments to expand significantly electric and low emission vehicle infrastructure across the country. Government funding and leadership, alongside private sector investment has supported the installation of more than 20,000 public chargepoints. This includes over 2,000 rapid chargepoints - one of the largest networks in Europe. Our grant schemes and our £400m public-private Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund will see thousands more electric vehicle chargepoints installed across the UK. Highways England has committed £15m to ensure there are chargepoints (rapid where possible) every 20 miles on 95% of the Strategic Road Network by 2020. The Prime Minister has asked the Office for Low Emission Vehicles to work with industry to set out a vision by Autumn 2019, for a core infrastructure network of rapid and high powered chargepoints along England’s key road network.