Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
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 total cost to the public purse of supporting the bioenergy with carbon capture and storage sector in the UK by 2050.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government has not estimated the total cost to the public purse of supporting bioenergy with carbon capture and storage out to 2050. The Government will set out more information on the use of biomass and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage as part of the Biomass Strategy that will be published later this year.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has taken steps to ensure that households that are reliant on (a) oil heating and (b) solid fuel qualify for financial support under the Energy Company Obligation: Help to Heat scheme.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) does not provide direct financial support. Homes currently reliant on oil and solid fuel heating in off gas-grid areas can benefit from insulation or certain types of low carbon heating measures, such as heat pumps.
In order to qualify, these households must be on relevant means-tested benefits or identified by their local authority or energy supplier as vulnerable. For owner occupier households, the homes must also be energy efficiency Band D-G. For the private rented sector and social housing, the homes must be energy efficiency Band E-G.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of financial support offered under the Energy Company Obligation: Help to Heat programme to (a) low-income and (b) rural households in Wales.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government has committed to expanding the Energy Company Obligation from £640 million to £1 billion a year over four years from 2022, continuing the focus on low-income households. Across England, Scotland and Wales, this will deliver installations of an estimated 800,000 measures, in 450,000 homes, of which 360,000 homes will be upgraded to Energy Performance Certificate Band C.
There are specific incentives for the upgrading of off gas-grid rural homes in Wales and Scotland.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has he made of the effectiveness of the energy price cap in incentivising households to increase electrification.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government recognises that how certain costs are apportioned between electricity and gas can incentivise certain types of behaviour. As set out in its British Energy Security Strategy, the Government will rebalance the costs placed on energy bills away from electricity to incentivise electrification across the economy, and to accelerate consumers and industry's shift away from volatile global commodity markets over the decade. Proposals on how to do so will be published in 2022.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has he made of the adequacy of the energy price cap scheme for electricity-only consumers; and if he will make a comparative assessment of the level of the cap for (a) dual-fuel and (b) electricity-only consumers.
Answered by Greg Hands
The energy price cap is set by Ofgem. Ofgem calculates different price cap rates for credit meters, pre-pay meters and multi-register meters (Economy 7-type electricity metering).
In order to help people with the costs of energy, the Government has announced a package of support measures, including a £200 rebate for households delivered via their energy bill this autumn. This is in addition to the range of support for low-income, fuel poor and vulnerable households.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the £39.8 billion Research and Development budget for 2022-2025, what proportion of that funding will be allocated to research using (a) advanced cultures of human cells and tissues, (b) artificial intelligence, (c) organ-on-a-chip technology and (d) other new approach methodologies.
Answered by George Freeman
We have set out how BEIS’ record £39.8 billion R&D budget will be allocated across our partner organisations over the next three years in our ‘BEIS R&D: partner organisation allocation 2022/2023 to 2024/2025’ report published on 14 March.
BEIS will now be working with all partner organisations to determine detailed allocations within their envelopes, including at council level for UK Research and Innovation. Details of funding for specific programmes will be agreed by BEIS and partner organisations and set out in due course.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has he made of the adequacy of the existing energy price cap in incentivising households to increase electrification for heating.
Answered by Greg Hands
The price cap is a temporary measure until competition in the market improves and ensures domestic consumers on default tariffs pay a fair price for their energy. It is designed to tackle the loyalty penalty, where disengaged consumers are overcharged for their energy. It is not the objective of the price cap to incentivise choices in particular heating options.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what comparative assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) equity of the existing price cap scheme for electricity-only consumers relative to dual-fuel users.
Answered by Greg Hands
The methodology and calculation of the price cap is a matter for Ofgem.