Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
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 number of people who will be employed in the electric vehicle manufacturing sector by 2030.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Faraday Institution, which supports UK battery development, estimates that the overall industry workforce in the automotive and electric vehicle battery ecosystem could grow by 29% from 170,000 employees in 2020 to 220,000 employees by 2040. The report ‘UK electric vehicle and battery production potential to 2040’ can be downloaded from the Faraday Institution’s website at: https://faraday.ac.uk/publications/.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he has made an assessment of the potential merits of mining lithium in the UK to produce responsibly sourced electric vehicle batteries.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
In order to meet the anticipated global demand for batteries for electric vehicles, production needs to increase significantly worldwide. Lithium and associated Li-ion technology is a key component. The Faraday Battery Challenge is supporting the increase in production of current Li-ion technology - from early stage research, through innovation, to scale-up - to help position the UK to best capture this market.
The Faraday Battery Challenge is looking at the feasibility of extracting lithium in the UK, including in Scotland and Cornwall. Research suggests that domestic sources of lithium have the potential to provide a substantial portion of the UK’s future demand, allowing us to develop a domestic, environmentally responsible, lithium supply. In order to ensure that the full value that we expect this new industry to generate is captured in the UK, it is essential to build the rest of the downstream supply chain domestically, so that battery-quality chemicals and batteries can also be produced here.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
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 make the UK a leading producer of battery technology.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
In order to meet the anticipated global demand for batteries for electric vehicles, production needs to increase significantly worldwide. Lithium and associated Li-ion technology is a key component. The Faraday Battery Challenge is supporting the increase in production of current Li-ion technology - from early stage research, through innovation, to scale-up - to help position the UK to best capture this market.
The Faraday Battery Challenge is looking at the feasibility of extracting lithium in the UK, including in Scotland and Cornwall. Research suggests that domestic sources of lithium have the potential to provide a substantial portion of the UK’s future demand, allowing us to develop a domestic, environmentally responsible, lithium supply. In order to ensure that the full value that we expect this new industry to generate is captured in the UK, it is essential to build the rest of the downstream supply chain domestically, so that battery-quality chemicals and batteries can also be produced here.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government plans to provide additional financial support to (a) pubs, (b) restaurants and (c) other businesses worst affected by the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Paul Scully
There is a significant package of financial support currently available to businesses in the hospitality sector to help the difficulties caused by Covid-19 and the associated social distancing measures the Government has put in place. The wide range of schemes include:
We continue to keep our support for pubs, restaurants and other businesses under review and to listen to feedback from businesses, and their representatives, in affected sectors.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Marches local enterprise partnership has taken to support the New Model in Technology and Engineering university project in Herefordshire.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government’s awarding of Growth Deal 3 funding in March 2017 provided a boost of £21.9 million for the Marches area.
Since the Deal was agreed, the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) have been working closely with the New Model in Technology and Engineering (NMiTE) project. The LEP also provided development funding to the project to support the completion of the business case.
A location for the first phase of development has been identified. The LEP have recently received a business case for the second phase of development, and discussions aimed at agreeing the next tranche of funding are ongoing.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans her Department has to fund research into micro-algae biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuel.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The majority of BEIS funding for research is allocated through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI currently funds a large portfolio of research projects looking at bioenergy and other alternative energy sources.
Algae have considerable potential as an industrial biotechnology platform serving a wide range of bio-based products. Developed in the right conditions, this could offer a low carbon alternative to existing technologies as well as a sustainable alternative to traditional crop cultivation. Algae-UK, one of six funded Networks in BBSRC’s Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy portfolio, is focussing on realising the potential of algal systems.
More widely, the Department has also supported a Science and Innovation Audit for the marine economy in the Highland and Islands region of Scotland, home of 61% of the UK’s coastline. The report, published earlier this year, highlighted the potential value of marine biotechnology to the region, which could be worth £600m by 2030.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
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 effect of the UK leaving the EU on the UK's contribution to tackling climate change.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
I refer my hon Friend to the answer I gave to my hon Friend the hon. Member for Crawley (Henry Smith) to Question 253562.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent progress his Department has made on ensuring the UK meets its 2.4 per cent GDP target for R&D funding.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow to Question 230812.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure the continuity of funding for research projects with EU funding in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Leaving the EU with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. If ratified, the provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement will ensure continued UK participation in EU programmes under the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), including Horizon 2020.
As a responsible government, we are planning for every eventuality to ensure cross-border collaboration in research and innovation can continue after EU exit in all scenarios. In August 2016, the government committed to underwrite all successful competitive UK bids to Horizon 2020 submitted before EU exit, even if they are notified of their success after exit. In July 2018, the government extended the guarantee to cover successful UK participants’ funding in all Horizon 2020 calls open to third country participants from the date of exit. The guarantee and extension would cover the lifetime of their projects, even if they last beyond 2020.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been allocated to research on fracking in 2019.
Answered by Claire Perry
We are committed to ensuring a rigorous, evidence-based approach to oil and gas extraction, and other sub-surface technologies such as geothermal heat. Fundamental research is the responsibility of research councils - independent from Government in their decision making - who are funding a number of relevant programmes.
The Natural Environment Research Council’s Geo Energy Observatories (UK GEOS) is a government funded project (£31m) with two world-leading centres for research, technology and monitoring of the subsurface that will provide open-data for academia, industry and regulators. Researchers will be able to use the observatories to determine the effect of subsurface energy technologies like those used in geothermal and shale gas extraction. UK GEOS could capture valuable data on nearby shale sites if operations go ahead. It is anticipated that the facilities will be operational by autumn 2019.
NERC and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) have also invested £8 million in a research programme on unconventional hydrocarbons in the UK energy system: environmental and socio-economic impacts and processes. The outcome of this research programme will be to update the independent scientific evidence base to understand potential environmental and socio-economic impacts of unconventional hydrocarbon development.
A list of the successful bids, details of their funding and timescales of the research can be found here: http://gotw.nerc.ac.uk/list_them.asp?them=Uncon+Hydrocarbons&cookieConsent=A
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy also currently grant funds a research consortium led by the British Geological Survey (BGS) to deliver an environmental monitoring programme in and around the first shale sites in Lancashire and North Yorkshire where applications for shale gas wells have been made. Since January 2015, researchers have been gathering baseline data on a number of environmental parameters including ground water & air quality, seismicity, radon and ground motion.
This information is made freely available to the public and supports peer-reviewed science. It will also inform future best practice, enable new technologies to be developed, and develop the UK skill base. The cost to grant-fund this programme is £1 million for the 2018/19 financial period.
Since 2015, the Department has also funded a research consortium led by Bristol University with the aim of developing a better understanding of natural induced microearthquakes and the application of microseismic monitoring to the oil and gas industry, to support regulatory decisions and improve public engagement. The cost to fund this is £19,000 per annum.