Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
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 discuss with energy companies the potential exclusion of customers who cannot access IT services from cheaper tariffs.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy Ministers have met with a number of energy supply companies to discuss a wide range of issues.
Consumers without access to the internet can shop around to find a better deal for their energy by using any price comparison company which is accredited to the Confidence Code administered by Ofgem and provides a free telephone price comparison service. In addition Citizen Advice offers advice and support on energy switching.
The Government has made it clear that it wants to see companies treating all of their customers fairly – not just those who switch.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
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 investigate whether TUPE provisions have been applied to British Airways IT workers' jobs that have been outsourced in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
When a business changes owner, TUPE regulations may apply. Outsourcing part of their business is a commercial decision taken by British Airways and it is not a matter for the Government to investigate such decisions.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps to ensure that the proposed EU-Canada trade agreement is not implemented until it has been fully scrutinised by national parliaments.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The EU–Canada Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) could be worth up to £1.3 billion per year to the UK economy. The Government is therefore keen to see the agreement implemented as soon as possible.
The Government considers, along with other Member States, that CETA is a “mixed agreement”. This means that CETA can only take full effect once the UK has decided to ratify it. As part of that ratification process, the complete draft text of the agreement would be laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days. In addition, the Government will ensure the proposals for a Council decision on signature, and subsequently conclusion, will be subject to scrutiny in both houses of the UK Parliament.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will reconsider the proposal to privatise the Land Registry; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
A government consultation seeking views on options to move operations of the Land Registry to the private sector closed on 26 May. Government is currently considering the responses but no final decisions have been made.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of coal burnt in UK coal-fired power stations in each of the last three years was mined in the UK.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
This can be estimated by subtracting the amount of steam coal imports (mainly used by coal-fired power stations) by the total amount of coal used in electricity generation. Please see the table below:
| Imports of steam coal (thousand tonnes) | Coal used in generation (thousand tonnes) | UK produced coal used for generation * (thousand tonnes) | Proportion of UK produced coal used for generation % |
2013 | 42,995 | 50,041 | 7,046 | 14.0% |
2014 | 35,294 | 38,400 | 3,106 | 8.0% |
2015 (provisional) | 20,631 | 29,342 | 8,711 | 29.6% |
* This includes stocks from earlier years.
Source:
Energy Trends tables 2.1 and 2.4, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solid-fuels-and-derived-gases-section-2-energy-trends.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what measures she is putting in place to minimise the number of Notifications of Inadequate System Margin issued by the National Grid; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
A Notice of Inadequate System Margin is one of the tools National Grid use to maintain margins in the system and can happen at any time for a variety of reasons. Issuing a NISM does not mean that demand is about to outstrip supply: it is a notice to the market to bring forward further capacity. National Grid issue NISMs ahead of dispatching capacity from its supplementary balancing reserve, which will include 3.5GW of dispatchable generating capacity next winter. This will give any remaining capacity in the market first opportunity to respond but does not signal any significant risk of shortages. National Grid’s objective is to secure supplies and the NISM is an important tool to achieve that objective with minimum distortion to the market.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the cost to the public purse was of the Notifications of Inadequate System Margin issued on 9 May 2016 by the National Grid; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
There was no cost to the public purse resulting from the Notice of Inadequate System Margin issued on 9 May.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of coal produced and imported into the UK is used for (a) electricity generation, (b) steel production, (c) cement manufacture, (d) domestic uses, (e) carbon fibre goods, (f) liquid fuel manufacture, (g) mobile phone components and (h) heritage railways in the latest year for which figures are available.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
The table below gives the proportion of coal produced and imported into the UK by sector for 2014. DECC only produces industry consumption data for the main industrial sectors. Therefore, data is not broken down specifically for cement manufacture, carbon fibre goods, liquid fuel manufacture and mobile phone components. For industry the table shows the two largest consumers and iron and steel.
| Thousand Tonnes | Proportion % |
Total Demand | 48,500 |
|
Transformation | 45,665 | 94.1% |
Of which: Electricity Generation | 38,400 | 79.2% |
Industry | 2,240 | 4.6% |
Of which : Mineral Products | 1173 | 2.4% |
Pulp, paper, printing, etc | 136 | 0.2% |
Iron and Steel | 54 | 0.1% |
Heritage railways | 13 | 0.03% |
Domestic | 547 | 1.1% |
*Other | 35 | 0.1% |
*includes energy industry use, public administration, commercial and miscellaneous.
Source:
DUKES table 2.4 available at:
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with higher education institutions about the potential effect of changes in the level of university teaching staff on casual employment contracts on the quality of teaching.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
We have had no such direct discussions with higher education institutions.
In the 2016 Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Grant letter we asked HEFCE to look into the two issues of (a) the contractual status of academic staff and (b) teaching intensity/weighted contact hours across different subjects.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff were employed on (a) fixed-term and (b) atypical contracts at UK universities in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes statistics on academic staff employed at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The numbers of staff employed on fixed-term and atypical contracts in each of the last five years are presented in the table:
Academic Staff on Fixed-Term and Atypical Contracts | ||
UK Higher Education Institutions | ||
Academic Years 2010/11 to 2014/15 | ||
Academic Year | Fixed-term Contracts | Atypical Contracts |
2014/15 | 70,035 | 75,560 |
2013/14 | 69,415 | 75,040 |
2012/13 | 65,990 | 74,075 |
2011/12 | 65,710 | 82,045 |
2010/11 | 60,320 | 78,340 |
Source: HESA Staff Record Note: Figures in the table have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 5. | ||