Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
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 Answer of 25 October 2021 to Question 59782 on Employment Tribunals Service, when he plans to publish his Department's response to the report by the Law Commission entitled Employment Law Hearing Structures, published on 29 April 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
The full response to the Law Commission’s recommendations will be available on the Law Commission website in due course.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
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 support people whose direct debit for energy bills has been significantly increased by their energy provider without notice causing them to enter an unarranged overdraft.
Answered by Greg Hands
Suppliers must take all reasonable steps to ensure that customers’ direct debit payments are based on the best available information. A supplier should explain the reasons for changes made, with at least 10 days advance notice before the next payment is taken. The customer may challenge a proposed increase and renegotiate the payment level. Ofgem are undertaking a series of market compliance reviews to assess whether recent direct debit increases are justified.
The Government has announced a package of additional measures to provide immediate support, totalling over £37 billion this year, including a £400 grant to households to help with their energy bills.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
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 help support people on the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive scheme with monitoring payments where the firm providing the monitoring service has become insolvent.
Answered by Greg Hands
Participants in the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (DRHI) have always been able to change their Metering and Monitoring Service Package (MMSP) to a new installer should their existing installer become insolvent. The recent legislation that closed the DRHI to new applicants streamlined this process.
The DRHI closed to new applications on 31 March 2022. However, the Department will continue to keep the scheme (including MMSP) under review to determine whether further changes to scheme operation are required, until the final DRHI payments are made in 2029. This will take into account market conditions such as installer availability.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether financial support is available to people who require home insurance where their home is built above a coal mine colliery.
Answered by Greg Hands
There is dedicated support available for anyone whose home is damaged through historic coal mining. Utilising the powerful remedies of the Coal Mining Subsidence Act 1991, the Coal Authority, one of BEIS Partner Organisations, will assess and carry out repairs to any properties damaged by coal mining subsidence.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What steps his Department is taking to support research and development in South Yorkshire as part of the Government’s levelling up agenda.
Answered by George Freeman
We are growing R&D clusters around the country and I recently had the pleasure of visiting the BioYorkshire cluster. The Levelling Up White Paper set a new mission to increase domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East by at least one third over the Spending Review period and at least 40 percent by 2030.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many cases have been assessed for compensation under the Coal Industry Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme since 1985.
Answered by Greg Hands
Nabarro Claims Solutions (NCS) took over administration of the Coal Industry Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme in May 2011. Since then, 1,826 claims have been received and assessed.
A verifiable breakdown of claims prior to May 2011 is not available.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many cases have been awarded compensation using only a death certificate under the Coal Industry Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme since 1985.
Answered by Greg Hands
Nabarro Claims Solutions (NCS) took over administration of the Coal Industry Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme (CIPCS) in May 2011. Since then, 124 claims, which met the employment criteria of employment with British Coal, have been settled on reliance of the content of a Death Certificate instead of certification in respect of Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit for PD D1 (Pneumoconiosis) or another disease that is compensable under the CIPCS.
A verifiable breakdown of claims prior to May 2011 is not available.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
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 Ministerial colleagues in the Treasury on the potential merits of making financial support available to the haulage sector affected by rising fuel costs.
Answered by Greg Hands
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State regularly meets with Ministerial colleagues in HM Treasury and discusses a range of issues.