Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Government on its progress on meeting its COP26 commitments.
Answered by Graham Stuart
BEIS Ministers regularly meet with Government colleagues to discuss COP26 commitments, including progress towards our own net zero targets.
The Government is leading on climate change at home, including reducing emissions faster than any other G7 economy, and continuing to drive action internationally.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the paying of business rates excludes a business from (a) applying and (b) receiving additional restrictions grant funding.
Answered by Paul Scully
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has delivered an unprecedented package of support for businesses. Over £26bn has been allocated on business grants with a further £1 billion of support announced, in December 2021, for businesses in England most impacted by Omicron. From this, £635 million has been made available for local authorities to support the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors and over £100 million of discretionary funding for businesses severely impacted by Omicron through the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme.
Local Authorities are encouraged to support businesses from all sectors that have been severely impacted by restrictions, or by the Omicron variant, including those paying business rates.
Further information on eligibility can be found in the guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether businesses that pay business rates are eligible to apply for the additional restrictions grant.
Answered by Paul Scully
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has delivered an unprecedented package of support for businesses. Over £26bn has been allocated on business grants with a further £1 billion of support announced, in December 2021, for businesses in England most impacted by Omicron. From this, £635 million has been made available for local authorities to support the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors and over £100 million of discretionary funding for businesses severely impacted by Omicron through the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme.
Local Authorities are encouraged to support businesses from all sectors that have been severely impacted by restrictions, or by the Omicron variant, including those paying business rates.
Further information on eligibility can be found in the guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 section 28 of the Additional Restrictions Grant guidance for local authorities, whether businesses that pay business rates are eligible for the additional restrictions grant.
Answered by Paul Scully
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has delivered an unprecedented package of support for businesses. Over £26bn has been allocated on business grants with a further £1 billion of support announced, in December 2021, for businesses in England most impacted by Omicron. From this, £635 million has been made available for local authorities to support the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors and over £100 million of discretionary funding for businesses severely impacted by Omicron through the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme.
Local Authorities are encouraged to support businesses from all sectors that have been severely impacted by restrictions, or by the Omicron variant, including those paying business rates.
Further information on eligibility can be found in the guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 role of high efficiency glazing in residential and commercial buildings in contributing to the net zero by 2050 target.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As part of reaching Net Zero by 2050, the Clean Growth Strategy set out that all homes should reach EPC C by 2035 where cost effective, affordable, and practical. Double glazing is a popular energy efficiency measure and the English Housing Survey suggests that more than 85% of properties in England are fully double glazed, with less than 4% having no double glazing. As such, there is limited potential for further energy savings because so much of the stock already has efficient windows. Nevertheless, there are other benefits to more efficient glazing such as reduced internal noise, and improving the remaining single glazed windows would contribute to lower emissions.
Five per cent[i] of annual Non-domestic buildings energy use can be abated by fabric improvements of which we estimate around a third are glazing.
[i] Source: Building Energy Efficiency Survey, tables 4.5 and 3.1, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-energy-efficiency-survey-bees
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to introduce a new scheme to incentivise energy efficiency measures in homes to help meet the Government's net zero by 2050 target.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government will be expanding its funding commitment in financial year 21/22 for both the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and the Local Authority Delivery element of the Green Homes Grant scheme with £300 million of new funding and up to £100 million of recycled funding from the Green Homes Grant Vouchers, depending on take up.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that everyone is able to access their post safely, including those affected by (a) domestic abuse and (b) homelessness.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government recognises the importance of access to post for all users, especially those that are homeless or suffer at the hands of domestic abuse. The universal postal service is intended to provide an accessible postal service for all.
Royal Mail operates two services to help vulnerable customers have access to their post. Its redirection service can be specially accessed by people with personal safety concerns and its PO Box service provides options for customers designed to meet specific circumstances and preferences.
The Government will continue to work with Royal Mail and the Post Office on how vulnerable groups can best be supported.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department is providing to UK ports to deploy the green infrastructure necessary for increasing the UK's offshore wind capacity.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The expected rapid deployment of offshore wind across the UK, Europe and globally over the next decade, together with the increasing size of turbines, means that there is a need for a major expansion in manufacturing capacity in the coming years.
My rt hon Friend the Prime Minister recently announced £160 million of new funding for coastal manufacturing infrastructure. The ‘Offshore wind manufacturing investment support scheme’ aims to accelerate the development of large-scale manufacturing portside hubs, which could strengthen the UK’s offshore wind manufacturing capability, creating employment and investment in both coastal communities and the wider supply chain.
Following a Request for Information in October, earlier this month my Department launched a competitive process to support a large coastal manufacturing site for the offshore wind industry. This would create manufacturing clusters where several large-scale producers can co-locate.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the accountability of the vehicle rental industry to its customers; and how many complaints his Department has received on that industry in the last twelve months.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Department has not undertaken a specific assessment of the accountability of the vehicle hire industry.
In the last 12 months BEIS has received 5 complaints about consumer protection relating to the vehicle hire industry.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with Tata UK on that company's sale of carbon credits and its pension fund deficit; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Ministers have held a number of meetings with Tata at which a wide range of issues impacting Tata’s business have been raised. These continue to be explored as part of our wider package of Government support for UK Steel. In addition, on 26 May 2016, the Department for Work and Pensions launched a consultation on the options for the British Steel Pension Scheme. The consultation has now closed and the responses are being considered carefully.