Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2023 to Question 122127 on Liberty Steel: Redundancy, whether his Department plans to provide financial intervention in the case of Liberty Steel.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
I recognise this is a difficult time for workers at Liberty Steel and affected employees be able to access our broad range of support including JobCentre Plus, through its Rapid Response Service.
BEIS officials and Ministers are in regular contact with representatives from Liberty Steel and the trade unions and continue to monitor the situation closely.
Any use of taxpayers money to support individual businesses needs to go through thorough due diligence and scrutiny processes, including on the financial governance of any potential funding recipient.
It is for Liberty to manage the future of its business, and we hope the company succeeds with its plans to continue on a sustainable basis.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January to Question 125331 on Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund: Sefton Central, whether his Department plans to ask councils why they did not apply for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is working to understand the retrofit plans of the social housing sector. The Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator (SHRA) has been established alongside the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) to guide social housing landlords in their retrofit planning and to support their engagement with the SHDF. The SHRA is funded directly by BEIS and as such is a free service for eligible applicants to the SHDF.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will make an estimate of the number of UK jobs indirectly supported by high-tech sectors including the semiconductor industry.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
According to ONS figures[1], in 2021 high and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors directly accounted for around 796,000 jobs. This is based on the OECD definition and covers the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, electronics (including semiconductors) and electrical equipment, machinery, and transport equipment[2].
In 2021 these industries supported in excess of 900,000 indirect jobs in other areas of manufacturing and the wider economy. This is likely an underestimate. A precise estimate is methodologically difficult as the ONS estimates indirect jobs for the individual sectors listed above and with an aggregate sector definition, such as high and medium tech manufacturing, double counting will arise where these sectors supply inputs to each other.
Within these figures, DCMS estimate there are ~24,000 people working directly across the UK semiconductor industry, which could imply in the region of 17,000 being indirectly supported elsewhere.
[1] ONS Employee jobs and ONS Self Employed Jobs.
[2] These are defined by the SIC codes 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2023 to Question 120907, when the employment data for the steel sector for 2022 will be published.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Employment data is generated through the Business Register and Employment Survey, as made available through NOMIS (Official Census and Labour Market Statistics), a service provided by the Office for National Statistics.
According to the Release Calendar[1], the survey is due to be updated in September/October 2023.
[1] https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
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 meet with trade union representatives to discuss developments in the UK steel industry.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
My most recent meeting with steel trade union representatives took place on 24 January with Roy Rickhuss CBE, General Secretary of Community Trade Union. BEIS officials and I continue to actively engage with trade unions, companies and wider to support the UK steel sector to develop a viable, long-term solution for the UK steel industry.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
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 make an estimate of the level of energy demand from (a) buildings and (b) industry in the UK, as of 20 January 2023.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Data on UK energy demand is published in Energy Trends table 1.3: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/total-energy-section-1-energy-trends.
Information for January 2023 is not yet available. Figures include consumption from buildings and processes; these are not separately available. For the latest published 12-month period, October 2021 – September 2022, final consumption for domestic and other final users was 57.1 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe). Final consumption for industry was 21.8 mtoe, excluding energy industry consumption.
Projections for final energy demand by sector are available in Energy & Emissions Projections, Annex F: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-and-emissions-projections-2021-to-2040.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
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 support the development and implementation of a net zero emissions steel strategy for the UK.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government’s 2021 Net Zero Strategy reaffirms our commitment to continue to work with the steel industry on decarbonisation. We are working with the sector to support its decarbonisation options – including hydrogen based steelmaking technology - and to consider the implications of the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’.
The appropriate decarbonisation pathway for individual sites will be based on multiple factors and the Government is working closely with companies to support them as they make commercial decisions on the optimum route for their sites.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support he plans to provide to small businesses to assist with the cost of living after March 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Following an HMT-led review, the new Energy Bill Discount Scheme will continue to provide a discount to eligible businesses between April and March 2024. In addition, at the Autumn Statement, my Rt Hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £13.6 billion of support for businesses over the next five years, reducing the burden of business rates for SMEs. Furthermore, the Government’s reversal of the National Insurance rise, will save SMEs approximately £4,200 on average, as well the cut to fuel duty for 12 months and raising the Employment Allowance to £5,000.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to provide specific support to the steel sector on the cost of energy after March 2023.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government recognises that those in energy and trade intensive industries (ETIIs) are less able to pass higher costs through to their customers, due to international competition. Therefore we have announced a new Energy Bills Discount Scheme from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, with higher discounts given to those with larger energy usage such as steel producers. This is in addition to extensive support we have provided to the steel sector to help with energy costs, worth more than £800m since 2013.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
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 plans to provide specific support for the advanced manufacturing sector with decarbonisation.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government is committed to decarbonising advanced manufacturing in line with our net zero goals, while simultaneously transforming our industrial heartlands by attracting inward investment, future-proofing businesses, and securing high wage, high skill jobs. We are providing around £2 billion of funding to help industry to reduce emissions, save on bills and connect to low carbon infrastructure such as carbon capture technology.