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, if he will publish the Data Protection Impact Assessment which concluded that it would be appropriate to store individual consumption data for a period of up to ten years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
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.
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, National Grid's announcement of 6 October 2022 that the UK may experience power cuts lasting three hours per day during winter 2022, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a compensation scheme for businesses to reimburse them for lost earnings in the context of Government contingency planning for energy security in winter 2022-23.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is confident in its plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter, in light of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. Widespread power cuts are unlikely, and the Government has not established a compensation scheme.
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 National Grid's announcement of 6 October 2022 that the UK may experience power cuts lasting three hours per day during winter 2022, whether he has made an assessment of which business types or industries may be required to reduce their energy consumption as part of contingency planning for energy security during winter 2022-23.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is confident in its plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter and continues to work closely with Ofgem, National Grid and other key industry organisations to ensure the market can respond to any fluctuations in supply or demand. In the highly unlikely event of widespread disruption to electricity supplies, established emergency protocols would be implemented as early as possible to ensure an equitable distribution of electricity supply to customers, including industrial users, as far as reasonably practicable. No specific business types or industrial users are targeted to reduce energy usage as part of emergency measures
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, what his timescale is for (a) deciding and (b) announcing whether the Government plans to extend Energy Bill Relief Scheme beyond 31 March 2023.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has committed to carrying out a review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme by the end of the year to inform decisions on future support after March 2023, with any future support for those deemed eligible commencing on 1st April 2023 without a gap. The findings of the review will be published by the end of the year.
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 the Energy Bill Relief Scheme will cap the amount of (a) standing charges and (b) costs that gas and electricity suppliers can charge businesses; and whether that Scheme will cap profits of those suppliers.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Applying a price cap in the non-domestic market similar to the domestic market would be impractical, so the Government has designed an equivalent scheme that applies a discount on energy bills with reference to a Government-supported price. A robust audit, compliance and enforcement regime will be in place to ensure neither suppliers nor businesses will disproportionately gain from or be disadvantaged by the scheme.
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 publish further guidance on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme for adult social care providers and their suppliers of gas and electricity to improve clarity on the scheme's operation.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Guidance on the operation of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme has been published on GOV.UK:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers.
Further information will be provided in due course.
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, what assessment he has made of the potential ability of small and medium size businesses to (a) produce medium term business plans and (b) obtain finance in the context of uncertainty around energy costs beyond 31 March 2023 end date of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has announced unprecedented support within its Growth Plan to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and they will continue to do so from now until April next year.
As the Prime Minister and Chancellor set out on 17 October, the Government will be looking at exactly how it can focus support for those in need beyond April 2023, while reducing costs to the taxpayer. The Government will set out more detail in due course.
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, what plans he has to reimburse the complex cases in the Post Office Horizon compensation scheme announced in June 2022.
Answered by Dean Russell
The Department has made provision of £19.5 million for interim payments to members of the GLO who are eligible. All but 75 of these payments had been made; over 60 relate to complex cases, notably bankrupt or recently deceased claimants.
The Department has been working with the Insolvency Service to establish the best way of ensuring that each postmaster receives as much of their interim payment as possible. The Department continues to strive to ensure that interim payments are made as soon as possible to all eligible postmasters.
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, what estimate he has made of the levels of ancillary costs associated with installing heat-pumps in homes including (a) initial surveys, (b) planning permission applications and (c) noise surveys.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Most heat pump installations do not require planning permission, and compliance with noise regulations is typically covered as part of a heat pump suitability survey and design work carried out during the installation process.
BEIS-commissioned research (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-installing-heating-measures-in-domestic-properties) estimates that the average cost for a suitability survey and design for a typical 3-bedroom house is around £400.
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 make it his policy to amend the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to include a subsidy of £5,000 towards the cost of a heat pump for households that retain a gas boiler where that is required by the planning authority due to (a) noise restrictions on heat pumps and (b) other legal restrictions.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is a voluntary scheme to support households’ transition away from fossil fuel heating. The Government believes the funding available under this policy should be directed towards technologies that achieve this, rather than those which would continue to involve the burning of fossil fuels. As a result, the BUS does not currently provide funding for households that retain a gas boiler.