Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
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 made a recent assessment of whether there are potential national security implications of allowing Beijing Genomics Institute Group to operate in the UK.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government takes the importance of security in the handling of genomic data seriously. Any company working in the UK does so under the provisions of the Human Tissue Act 2004 and individuals, companies or agencies would be liable to criminal prosecution should they contravene those provisions.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
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 assessment of (a) whether the Post Office is providing and (b) the potential impact of the temporary closure of Post Offices on the provision of a convenient and accessible service to all customers.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Almost 93% of the population live within one mile (and over 99% within three miles) of their nearest Post Office. The branch network is subject to impact from external changes which are normally outside the control of the Post Office, such as postmasters retiring or moving on, or the loss of access to buildings due to lease arrangements expiring. In such instances the time it takes to restore service will vary depending on the individual local circumstances in each case. The Government-set Access Criteria ensures that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many homes were retrofitted as a result of the Green Homes Grant in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency as of 31 October 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Information on the number of homes retrofitted by parliamentary constituency through the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme can be found in Table 4.4 accompanying the latest release.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many SMEs have received public funding for support with the increase in the cost of living in Hornsey and Wood Green.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government recognises the impact rising prices are having on businesses, including those in Hornsey and Wood Green.
Businesses in Hornsey and Wood Green will have benefitted from the Government’s reversal of the National Insurance rise, saving SMEs on average £4,200, cut fuel duty for 12 months and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, to protect SMEs from high energy costs over the winter. The Employment Allowance was increased to £5,000 from April and we have continued to provide business rate relief worth over £7bn, freezing the business rates multiplier for a further year.
The Government is providing financial support - 348 SMEs in Hornsey and Wood Green have received Start Up Loans to the value of £2,988,847 as of November 2022.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
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 had recent discussions with Tesco on the pay and conditions of workers in Burma who produce clothing for its F&F brand.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
No discussions have taken place on this matter.
The UK has consistently supported the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on business and human rights, which are widely regarded as the authoritative international framework to steer practical action by Governments and businesses worldwide on this important agenda. Implementation of the UNGPs supports access to justice and remedy for victims of business-related human rights abuses, wherever these occur, and encourages businesses to voluntarily adopt due diligence approaches to respecting human rights.
The Government is clear that it expects all UK businesses to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UNGPs. In 2015 we introduced the Modern Slavery Act which requires businesses with a turnover of £36m or more to publish an annual modern slavery statement stating the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.
The Government expects companies to report transparently about how they are mitigating modern slavery risks and to use their modern slavery statements to demonstrate year on year progress. This enables consumers, shareholders and civil society to scrutinise the efforts being made.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
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 increase the rate of energy efficiency measure installations in homes in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is committed to improving the energy performance of homes across the country, including in Hornsey and Wood Green.
The Government is investing £6.6 billion in decarbonising heat and energy efficiency measures. In addition, the Energy Company Obligation Scheme is in its fourth iteration which will run until 2026 with a value of £4 billion. ECO + has also been announced, worth £1 billion and will run from Spring 2023 to March 2026.
£6 billion of additional Government funding towards supporting energy efficiency improvements will be made available from 2025 to 2028.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
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 number of homes that have been retrofitted through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency since the introduction of that fund.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The 2019 Conservative Manifesto committed to a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a 10-year period. The SHDF Demonstrator and Wave 1 awarded a combined total of around £240m of grant funding to Local Authorities, with data held on local authority-led projects rather than at a constituency level. The SHDF Wave 2.1 competition, which closed on 18th November 2022, will allocate up to £800m of grant funding, with successful projects likely to be notified in March 2023.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many projects have been completed through the Green Deal in Hornsey and Wood Green, as of 31 October 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
BEIS estimates that in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency there have been between one and five Green Deal projects completed (all measures installed and paid off). To manage the risk of revealing personal or commercial data, the Government's approach is not to release non-zero counts of less than five for a small geographic area. There are no live projects (all measures installed but not yet paid off) in the constituency.
Data covers the period from May 2013 to October 2022.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many homes were retrofitted with funding through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency as of 31 October 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The 2019 Conservative Manifesto committed to a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a 10-year period. The SHDF Demonstrator and Wave 1 awarded a combined total of around £240m of grant funding to Local Authorities, with data held on local authority-led projects rather than at a constituency level. The SHDF Wave 2.1 competition, which closed on 18th November 2022, will allocate up to £800m of grant funding, with successful projects likely to be notified in March 2023.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he (a) has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of implementing and (b) plans to take steps to publish a consultation on a social tariff for energy.
Answered by Graham Stuart
As set out in the Autumn Statement, the Government will develop a new approach to consumer protection in energy markets, which will apply from April 2024 onwards.
The Government has committed to work with consumer groups and industry to consider the best approach, including options such as social tariffs, as part of wider retail market reforms.