Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of retiring the Renewables Obligation Certificate scheme for landfill gas to energy generation sites by 2027 on the UK's energy security.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government does not intend to extend the Renewables Obligation scheme beyond the end dates for support in 2027 and 2037, depending on when the generating station was accredited. However, finding efficient ways to re-use existing stations that otherwise might decommission could be important for reducing methane emissions, as recognised in the Biomass Strategy. The Government is exploring the most appropriate revenue support mechanism for repowering existing stations across all technology types where this delivers value to the consumer.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to introduce revenue support mechanisms for existing landfill gas to energy generation sites beyond 2027.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government does not intend to extend the Renewables Obligation scheme beyond the end dates for support in 2027 and 2037, depending on when the generating station was accredited. However, finding efficient ways to re-use existing stations that otherwise might decommission could be important for reducing methane emissions, as recognised in the Biomass Strategy. The Government is exploring the most appropriate revenue support mechanism for repowering existing stations across all technology types where this delivers value to the consumer.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had discussions with the Scottish Government on its proposals to prohibit biodegradable municipal waste from being sent to landfill sites by 2025; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of these proposals on landfill sites in England.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
My officials regularly engage with counterparts in the Devolved Administrations, including the Scottish Government, to discuss policy developments and interactions. Earlier this summer we issued a Call for Evidence relating to the near elimination of biodegradable waste disposal in landfill in England from 2028. As part of this Call for Evidence we included two questions related to the inter-UK disposal of biodegradable waste in landfill.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to reach 7-9 GW of Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage power by 2030.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Power generation with Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) will be crucial to provide the flexible low carbon power generation required to decarbonise securely the power sector by 2035.
In March, the Government entered negotiations to deliver the UK’s first power CCUS project through the CCUS Cluster Sequencing Process, with the aim of reaching Final Investment Decisions in 2024.
This is not the extent of the Government's ambition: in March, the Department announced that it will launch a process this year to enable further expansion of the Track-1 CCUS clusters, and in July, it commenced engagement and due diligence with future CO2 storage sites to deliver two additional clusters by 2030 through Track-2.
This will enable further power CCUS deployment, alongside other CCUS-enabled technologies, and put the UK on the pathway to meeting its power sector decarbonisation ambitions, which Government analysis suggest could require as much as 10GW of power CCUS by 2035.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent steps her Department has taken to increase the rate of installation of (a) carbon capture and storage, (b) hydrogen and (c) other (i) low-carbon and (ii) flexible backup electricity power technologies.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The £20 billion announced in the Budget sets up the UK to deliver four Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) clusters by 2030. The Government will publish a vision for the CCUS sector in 2023. The Government's ambition is for up to 2GW of low-carbon hydrogen capacity to be in operation or construction by 2025. Government aims to complete the first Hydrogen Allocation Round by the end of 2023.
The Government is working with Ofgem and industry to implement the actions of the Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan to achieve a more flexible energy system.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of pumped hydro storage on base load requirements in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In 2021 we commissioned external analysis from AFRY,[1] to understand the role that long-duration energy storage could play in the system across Great Britain, how much may be required over different periods of time and the benefits of different technologies including pumped hydro storage. The analysis highlighted that storage technologies were able to effectively address the increasingly seasonal balancing requirements that emerge in a weather-driven electricity system.
[1] Benefits of long-duration electricity storage (2022), BEIS. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefits-of-long-duration-electricity-storage
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to improve rural connectivity.
Answered by John Whittingdale
We have already announced twelve Project Gigabit contracts, to extend gigabit-capable networks in rural and hard-to-reach areas of the UK. More contracts are set to be awarded in the coming months.
Support is also available through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which provides a subsidy of up to £4,500 for residents and businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband through local community broadband projects.
Through the Shared Rural Network, we are also jointly investing over £1 billion to increase 4G mobile coverage throughout the UK.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to add to the guidance accompanying the Down Syndrome Act 2022 to address 22q11.2 Syndromes and other chromosomal disorders.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We recognise that there are overlaps between the services that support people with Down syndrome and those that support people with other genetic conditions and/or a learning disability. The Down Syndrome Act guidance will focus on the unique support needs of people with Down syndrome. We will, however, highlight where best practice in service delivery would also be applicable to those with another genetic condition and/or a learning disability, including DiGeorge syndrome (22q11.2 deletion syndrome). There will be a full public consultation on the guidance once a draft has been produced.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will add 22q11.2 Syndromes to the standard blood screen test for new-borns.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
There are no plans to add 22q11.2 syndromes to the new-born blood spot screening programme. Proposals to expand screening for new-born blood spot screening must be submitted to the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) for assessment against its criteria to ensure screening is introduced where the benefit clearly outweighs the harm.
The UK NSC runs an annual call for topics in September where members of the pubic and stakeholders can submit new topics to be considered. The UK NSC carried out a review for 22q11.2 Syndrome in 2018 following an annual call submission and recommended that at the time the evidence was insufficient to recommend a screening programme.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his department is taking to ensure that Alternative Fuel Payments are reaching customers and are not held back by electricity companies.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published a Direction signed by the then Minister of State for Energy and Climate which legally requires that domestic electricity suppliers provide an Alternative Fuel Payment to all their eligible customers, and electricity suppliers had until the end of February to do this.