Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January to Question 13189 on Disease Control, how many mobile UV irradiation units have been purchased; and to which locations have they been deployed.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has purchased two mobile UV irradiation units, which were deployed at its main London building at 1 Victoria Street.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2023 to Question 132590, whether households that do not have a traditional relationship with an electricity supplier could be identified by comparing the data sets held by the Electricity Central Online Enquiry Service with the Valuation Office Agency’s register of all domestic properties in England.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Based on current understanding of the Valuation Office Agency's register, the Government believes that comparing these two datasets is likely to produce an incomplete list of households eligible for the EBSS Alternative Funding in England, as it may omit certain eligible households. Officials will undertake further work to ascertain the viability of this approach.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether their Department has purchased mobile UV virus irradiation units.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has purchased mobile UV irradiation units.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 (a) has or (b) has requested access to the Electricity Central Online Enquiry Service for the purpose of administering the Energy Bill Support Scheme (Alternative Funding).
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding (EBSS AF) will not be administered via the Energy Central Online Enquiry Service as energy suppliers do not have details of the households sub-metered to their customers, making it impossible for them to identify eligible households and provide support. The Local Authorities across England, Scotland and Wales will deliver the EBSS AF this winter.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 is taking steps to control the sale of vapes supplied through online marketplaces.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Products, including those such as vapes, whether sold through on-line marketplaces or in shops, need to comply with existing product regulation. Such products must be both safe and compliant with any restrictions relating to their sale. However, eCommerce has brought new challenges to the product safety framework as was highlighted by respondents to the Government’s Call for Evidence as part of the Product Safety Review. A consultation, including proposals to tackle the sale of unsafe products online, is being finalised for publication.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 take steps to bring forward legislative proposals to amend section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 to create a legal requirement for companies to align their social and environmental impact with their duty to shareholders.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is not persuaded that amending section 172 of the Companies Act in this way would be workable. Section 172 already requires directors to have regard in their decision-making to the environment, employees, customers and suppliers, among other matters. Since 2019, directors of large companies have been required to make a statement as part of the annual report describing how they have had regard to these matters.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 has made a recent assessment of Drax power station's compatibility with the sustainability criteria of the Contracts for Difference and Renewable Obligation scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Only biomass that complies with stringent sustainability criteria is eligible for support under the Contracts for Difference and Renewables Obligation schemes. Biomass generators, including Drax, must demonstrate to Ofgem and the Low Carbon Contracts Company respectively that they have met the criteria before they can receive payment under these schemes.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 the Competition and Markets Authority’s road fuel review, published on 12 October 2022, what estimate he has made of time it will take to create an open data scheme through which individual forecourt prices are collected and made available.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave the Hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire on 18 November 2022 to Question 82451.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 review the eligibility criteria for the Help to Grow Management course; and if he will extend that criteria to include businesses employing between one and four people.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Help to Grow Management course is designed to help SMEs to improve their productivity. It targets businesses with 5-249 employees as the course by its nature requires a reasonable span of leadership and management within the firm for the benefits to be realised.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 the Use of electricity meter and gas meter personal data collected through the Energy Price Guarantee scheme: privacy notice guidance published on 1 October 2022, how often his Department will collect data from individual (a) traditional gas meters, (b) traditional electricity meters, (c) electricity smart meters and (d) gas smart meters.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The scope of the data required for the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) scheme, and how regularly it is collected and processed, is still being defined. The Government will safeguard consumers’ privacy, whilst enabling proportionate access to energy consumption data to support the monitoring, evaluation, fraud prevention and scrutiny of the EPG. Robust security measures are in place to protect data, such as firewalls and passwords and the Government will only retain data for as long as it is required. The Government will collect any data (e.g. energy consumption) via a secure transfer from the energy suppliers. Once the scope of the data has been agreed, and before it is collected and processed, a Data Protection Impact Assessment will be completed.