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
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.
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 financial incentives the Government is offering to increase the uptake of electric vehicles.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
We are investing nearly £1.5bn between April 2015 and March 2021 to support the market for Ultra Low Emission cars, vans, HGVs, taxis and motorcycles, and schemes to support charge point infrastructure at homes and workplaces, and on residential streets. This funding also includes grants for research to support the development and deployment of ultra low emission technologies. Government grants for plug-in vehicles will be available until at least 2020, reducing the upfront purchase price of electric vehicles We stated in our Road to Zero strategy that consumer incentives in some form will continue to play a role beyond 2020.Purchasers of ultra-low emission vehicles also receive other benefits, including: lower tax rates, and grants towards the installation of chargepoints. HMT recently announced plans to accelerate the shift to zero emission cars by removing company car tax in 2020-21, 1% in 2021-22 before returning to the planned 2% rate in 2022-23 – a significant tax saving for employees and employers. A number of local authorities also provide additional incentives such as free parking or exemption from the congestion charge. We have also supported the uptake of ultra low emission buses through the Ultra Low Emission Bus Scheme.