Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions she has had with Ofgem on (a) the temporary increase to the price cap to pay off debt and (b) whether energy companies will use this money to reduce indebted customers’ balances.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In England, estimates indicate that the government support provided prevented 389,000 households from becoming fuel poor in 2023.
Despite unprecedented support with bills, the Government recognises consumer energy debt as a large and growing issue and understands the cost-of-living challenges households are facing.
Ofgem has a responsibility for setting the price cap at which suppliers can recover costs they incur, and the government expects suppliers to do all they can to support customers in debt, particularly vulnerable customers.
We welcome Ofgem’s ‘Affordability and debt in the domestic retail market – call for input' published 11 March 2024 and look forward to seeing the results and Ofgem’s next course of action. Details of Ofgem’s consultation can be found here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/affordability-and-debt-domestic-retail-market-call-input
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will hold discussions with Ofgem on ensuring that energy consumers who are not in debt are not financially disadvantaged by energy companies minimising exposure to bad debt through higher standing charges.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Minsters and Officials have regular meetings with Ofgem to discuss a wide range of issues, including standing charges.
Ofgem recently sought views on standing charges and is currently analysing the responses. Further information is available at https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/standing-charges-call-input .
It is not uncommon in consumer markets for companies to recover costs, such as customer debt, from their wider customer base. Otherwise, it could risk the company being inadequately funded for the services they provide, including help and support to vulnerable customers. Without adequate funding, it could also risk suppliers going insolvent, giving rise to potentially significant additional costs of a supplier of last resort or special administration regime.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many staff will employed in her Department's offices in Aberdeen at grade (a) 6, (b) 7 and (c) SCS by 2027.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Aberdeen has 102 staff (as at end March 24) and our ambition is to increase this to 135 by March 2027, however this is the overall target for this location; targets are not specific to grades or staff groups.
Relocation of roles out of London is being managed via voluntary relocation of internal staff and through recruitment, therefore we are unable to predict grade composition of staff that will be based in Aberdeen in 2027.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of granting a visa waiver for Ukrainians visiting relatives and friends (a) displaced by the war in Ukraine and (b) temporarily resident in the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Visit visas are an important part of securing the UK’s border.
Waiving visa requirements for a specific cohort of Ukrainian nationals would not be consistent with the purpose of the visa requirement. There is no obvious mechanism for delivering the utility of a visa application and biometric enrolment, which underpin the role visas play in securing our border, whilst also distinguishing a cohort of Ukrainian nationals who have the requirements waived. Identifying those individuals and enrolling their biometrics would require a process which would be, in practice, nearly identical to a visa application.
Ukrainians who want to visit relatives and friends in the UK can apply for a standard visitor visa, including multiple-entry visas. The UK has a visa application centre (VAC) in Kyiv, and a VAC network in neighbouring countries, enabling Ukrainians to access these services and apply for visas.
This is in no way a reflection on our support for Ukraine which remains, and will always remain, steadfast. The Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme remains open for new applications from those wishing to come to the UK, seeking temporary sanctuary from the conflict.
To provide future certainty, we recently announced the new Ukraine Permission Extension scheme, which is a new visa scheme for existing Ukraine scheme visa holders who have made the UK their temporary home. It will provide permission to stay in the UK for an additional 18 months and is due to open early in 2025.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating additional funding for volunteer led community transport schemes.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department makes available over £3 million each year to community transport operators through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG), supporting them to continue delivering inclusive and accessible transport across the country.
An uplift of 60% has been added to BSOG claims for community transport operators until 31 March 2025. This means operators will receive £1.60 for every £1 claimed, reflecting the increased costs faced by the sector.
We also encourage Local Transport Authorities to engage with community transport operators when preparing their Bus Service Improvement Plans which are vital in setting out an areas’ long term plans for bus services and how they will be improved.
The bus fare cap, only available in England, has proven popular with bus passengers in communities across England, particularly in rural and non-metropolitan areas, where our statistics show the overall price of bus fares between September 2022 and September 2023 dropped by almost 11%.
Our £20 million Rural Mobility Fund (RMF) in England, also devolved, is supporting 16 innovative, demand-led minibus trials in rural and suburban areas across 16 local authorities in England. These pilots are exploring whether Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) can serve these communities more effectively than traditional public transport solutions alone.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will instruct Ofgem to update the (a) Holistic Network Design and (b) Centralised Strategic Network Plan to ensure a greater proportion of future electricity transmission infrastructure is built offshore.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Electricity System Operator (ESO) is responsible for assessing and recommending transmission reinforcement options.
Its Holistic Network Design recommendations give equal consideration to impacts on communities, cost to consumers, environmental impacts, and deliverability.
The ESO has assessed a wide range of options for each network need identified in order to minimise impacts against the four criteria. This includes assessing both on and offshore options. Where an offshore route performs best, the ESO recommends this.
The ESO will publish the transitional Centralised Strategic Network Plan on March 19th, which will include details of its recommended design options.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate her Department has made of the maximum capacity of offshore wind that could be funded through the Contracts for Difference allocation round six.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Contracts for Difference auctions have successfully used competition to procure 30GW of new renewable capacity across all technologies, including around 20GW of offshore wind, since their introduction, while driving costs down for consumers. In any round, the volume of capacity that is successful for each technology, including offshore wind, depends on a range of factors including the volume of eligible applications, and the prices that applicants bid at. We cannot pre-judge the outcome of allocation round six.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an estimate of the potential additional costs for offshoring the required new grid capacity between north east (a) Scotland and (b) England.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Electricity network planning is a function of the independent Electricity System Operator (ESO). Through the Holistic Network Design (HND), the transitional Centralised Strategic Network Plan and in the future through the Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP), the ESO considers the best approach to coordinate transmission infrastructure to balance community impact, environmental impact, cost and deliverability and reduce the amount of planned infrastructure. Additional costs will vary depending on the specific infrastructure considered, however subsea cabling is several times more expensive than overhead lines, due in part to lower capacity of offshore circuits (2GW in comparison to 6GW for onshore alternatives).
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will instruct Ofgem to publish an estimate of the impact of the cost of future transmission charges for renewable companies in more expensive Transmission Network Use of System Charges zones on the agreed strike price for the fifth Contracts for Difference (CfD) Allocation Round.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government acknowledges the uncertainty that renewable developers face in pricing in the cost of future transmission charges (TNUoS), and that this presents particular challenges for transmission-connected projects in more expensive TNUoS zones. Whilst network charges are a matter for Ofgem, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has overall responsibility for Contracts for Difference allocation rounds. The Department continues to assess implications of charging arrangements on CfD generators and will continue to engage with Ofgem to mitigate the impacts where possible and appropriate.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of her net zero policies on trends in the level of investment in renewable energy.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government continues to support investment in renewables, as demonstrated in the Spring Budget announcement, where it confirmed the biggest ever budget for the Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6, at £1,025 million.
Additionally, Government announced an increase of up to £120 million to the £960 million Green Industry Growth Accelerator fund, further supporting the development of Wind and Networks manufacturing supply chains across the UK. These announcements reinforce efforts to reduce network connection times and make investment tax measures permanent. Since 2010, renewables support has attracted around £120 billion of new investment, alongside around £80 billion of UK levy-funded support.