Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help ensure that funding through Industry Initiatives to provide a safeguard for disabled people with high energy costs as a result of their impairments does not place a higher administrative burden on disabled people than the Warm Home Discount.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Industry Initiatives provide valuable support to households in, or at risk of, fuel poverty through a range of measures, including energy advice, financial assistance, and energy efficiency improvements.
To date, energy suppliers have only been required to report on the overall spending on Industry Initiatives measures to Ofgem. From the 2022/23 scheme year, suppliers will be required to report on the estimated value and proportion of Industry Initiatives spending on fuel poor households where someone has a disability or significant health problems.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to take steps to help mitigate the impact on disabled people of the forthcoming changes to the eligibility criteria for the Warm Home Discount, which will remove eligibility for people who receive Personal Independence Payment and Disability Living Allowance.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Around 62% of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) recipients also receive one of the qualifying means-tested benefits and so would be considered low-income under the Core Group 2 criteria. Those with high energy costs would therefore be eligible for a rebate. The Government’s analysis shows that 160,000 more households, where there is a person with a disability or long-term illness, will receive a rebate each winter compared to the previous scheme. My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has also announced a one-off £150 payment for people on disability benefits this year, alongside other cost of living support measures: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-living-support/cost-of-living-support-factsheet-26-may-2022.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
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 Government Response to the Warm Home Discount: Better targeted support from 2022 consultation, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the value and proportion of energy suppliers' spending through Industry Initiatives to support fuel poor disabled people.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Industry Initiatives provide valuable support to households in, or at risk of, fuel poverty through a range of measures, including energy advice, financial assistance, and energy efficiency improvements.
To date, energy suppliers have only been required to report on the overall spending on Industry Initiatives measures to Ofgem. From the 2022/23 scheme year, suppliers will be required to report on the estimated value and proportion of Industry Initiatives spending on fuel poor households where someone has a disability or significant health problems.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
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 an assessment of the scale of the loss of retention monies by construction small and medium sized enterprises since January 2018.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
While difficult to measure fully and comprehensively, the Government is aware of this important issue and continues to work with both officials and the Construction Leadership Council to implement a solution.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
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 plans to reform the practice of retentions payments in the construction industry.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
While difficult to measure fully and comprehensively, the Government is aware of this important issue and continues to work with both officials and the Construction Leadership Council to implement a solution.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Extra Costs Taskforce will report as scheduled by summer 2022.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
BEIS are working closely with the Cabinet Office Disability Unit to carry out the engagement with disabled people, regulators and businesses, to ensure we have a full understanding of the issue of extra costs before the Taskforce is formally convened. The commitment to set up the Taskforce is still on track to be delivered by Summer 2022.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if the Extra Costs Taskforce established in the National Disability Strategy will recommend measures to tackle the disproportional impact of increased fuel and food prices on disabled consumers.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The taskforce is on track to set up by summer 2022 and we are keen to engage in that process before drawing conclusions.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many small businesses closed in each financial year from 2010-11 to date.
Answered by Paul Scully
Data on business closures by size of business are not available. The data provided below covers all registered business closures in the UK for the periods specified.
According to the business counts published in 2020 by the Office for National Statistics in UK business: activity, size and location, 98.1% of all registered business are small (0 to 49 employees). Therefore, the vast majority of business closures are very likely to be small businesses.
Data on business closures over the last 3 financial years are shown in table 1:
Table 1: Number of business closures by financial year, all registered businesses
Financial Year | Number of business closures |
2019/2020 | 383,000 |
2018/2019 | 348,000 |
2017/2018 | 351,000 |
Source: Office for National Statistics: Business Demography, quarterly experimental statistics, UK
Prior to 2017 data are only available for calendar years, rather than financial years. The number of closures in each calendar year is shown in table 2:
Table 2: Number of business closures by calendar year, all registered businesses
Calendar year | Number of business closures |
2019 | 336,000 |
2018 | 311,000 |
2017 | 346,000 |
2016 | 281,000 |
2015 | 282,000 |
2014 | 246,000 |
2013 | 238,000 |
2012 | 252,000 |
2011 | 230,000 |
2010 | 277,000 |
Source: Office for National Statistics: Business demography, UK statistical bulletin
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
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 (a) potential for and (b) benefits of local electricity generation.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
There can be many benefits from local electricity generation, including greater consumer engagement with electricity and how it is generated.
In 2019, we generated record levels of solar and wind energy and continue to be the world’s leader for offshore wind.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with Oldham Council on the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement on the availability of fuel for emergency services.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government has been implementing a significant programme of work to ensure the UK will be ready to leave the European Union on 31st October in all scenarios, including in the event of a Brexit without a withdrawal agreement.
Our priority is to maintain normal fuel deliveries in any of these scenarios and my officials continue to hold discussions with industry, other Government Departments and Local Resilience Fora (including Greater Manchester Resilience Forum of which Oldham Council are a member) to ensure that this objective is met.