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.
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 he has plans to increase the level of funding allocated to science research after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Through our modern Industrial Strategy we have committed to the highest R&D increase on record. We have announced increases in public R&D spending worth £7bn up to 2021/2022, and we are working with UK Research and Innovation and other key partners to develop a roadmap that sets out how government and industry will work together to reach our target of increasing R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027 and 3% in the longer-term.
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 there is commercially sensitive information which prevents the disclosure of details of Government meetings with representatives of the Swansea Tidal Lagoon Project.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department takes into account a range of matters, including commercial sensitivities and the impact disclosure of information may have on, for example, ongoing discussions with stakeholders and other interested parties in considering whether to release information.
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 his Department intends to disclose information regarding the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department takes into account a range of matters, including commercial sensitivities and the impact disclosure of information may have on, for example, ongoing discussions with stakeholders and other interested parties in considering whether to release information.
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, when he last met with representatives of the Swansea Tidal Lagoon project.
Answered by Claire Perry
Meetings between BEIS Ministers and external organisations are published quarterly on the Department’s website.
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 he has undertaken an assessment of the potential effect of the Welsh Government's proposed investment in the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project on the (a) level of the average strike price and (b) tenure of contract requested by the prospective developer.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department has had a number of constructive discussions with the Welsh Government in relation to the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project.
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 will introduce an award in recognition of the contribution made by munitions workers during the Second World War.
Answered by Nick Hurd
As previously answered in the response I gave on 28 November 2016 to Question UIN 54468, the position remains the same:
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has given careful consideration to how the valuable contribution made by former munitions workers could be formally recognised. In the last Parliament we worked with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Recognition for Munitions Workers to explore ways to ensure that the collective efforts of all those who worked in munitions factories were not forgotten, and this included a number of positive steps such as the march past of former munitions workers in the Remembrance Sunday parade in 2012. While the All Party Parliamentary Group is no longer active, we would be willing to work with any MP or group who has ideas or recommendations on how the valiant collective effort of former munitions workers could be recognised.