Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 encourage R&D investment in highly-skilled pharmaceutical manufacturing in the UK.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The UK Government will invest £14.9 billion in R&D this year, bringing investment to its highest level in four decades. This is a major step towards our commitment to increase total public and private R&D investment to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027.
Through the Manufacturing Made Smarter Challenge, the government will invest £147 million (matched by a minimum of £147 million from industry) to transform the UK’s manufacturing capabilities through the development and adoption of industrial digital technologies. The Challenge will support businesses to implement new tech to boost their manufacturing productivity, helping them reach new customers, create thousands of new highly skilled jobs, slash carbon emissions and reduce prices for customers.
The Government has also recently launched the Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund (MDMTF), a £20 million fund offering capital grants to businesses, incentivising them to place internationally mobile high value manufacturing investments in the UK. The MDMTF will increase the production of medicines and diagnostic equipment in the UK. In doing so, it seeks also to support companies in adopting new technologies which boost productivity, drive down costs and which have less impact on the environment.
The Government will also publish a Life Sciences Vision later this year which will set out our ambition for supporting growth of the life sciences sector, including in manufacturing.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 allocated any financial or other resources from his Department's budget to investigate potential future uses by his Department of the NHS Test and Trace database system.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
To date, no financial or other resources have been allocated from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) budget to investigate potential future uses by the department of the NHS Test and Trace database system.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 use the NHS Test and Trace database system.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The corporate functions of the Department do not have access to the NHS Test and Trace database system. The Department therefore does not currently plan to use it.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 Cabinet colleagues on future uses of the NHS Test and Trace database system.
Answered by Paul Scully
No assessment has yet been made, nor any decisions made, on whether to use the data systems used by NHS Test and Trace for other purposes beyond those related to Covid-19. Any work to assess potential future uses of these data systems would be met from within the financial resources already allocated to NHS Test and Trace for the 2021/22 financial year.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 (a) competitiveness of electricity prices in the UK and (b) effect of those prices on the UK steel sector’s ability to compete internationally.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government is committed to minimising energy costs for businesses to ensure our economy remains strong and competitive. The ability for our industries to be able to compete across Europe and globally is a priority for this Government.
The Government has put moving to a cleaner, greener economy at the heart of its Industrial Strategy, especially with our commitment to Net Zero. Our aim is to work with the steel sector and help them to reduce carbon emissions. We will continue to support the steel sector in achieving these aims through the various funds available such as the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and Clean Steel Fund.
We estimate that reduction in the various renewable costs for eligible energy intensive industries, including steel, will save them around £400m a year in electricity costs. We have also extended the schemes to compensate certain energy intensive industries for indirect emission cost to the end of the next financial year in order to minimise disruption to existing recipients whilst we conduct a review. Between 2013 and 2019, total compensation paid to the steel sector was over £480m.
We welcome the recent report by UK Steel - “Closing the Gap” - regarding electricity prices and will give its recommendations careful consideration.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 merits of the recommendations made by UK Steel in its February 2021 report, Closing the Gap, on reducing the disparity between the UK and the German and French industrial electricity prices.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We welcome this report and will give its recommendations careful consideration.