Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason the archive files relating to Britain’s nuclear weapons and atomic energy programmes were withdrawn from the National Archives by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in 2018.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, working in collaboration with colleagues from the Ministry of Defence and the Atomic Weapons Establishment, is undertaking a security review of nuclear information records in the archives at Kew. As part of the review process, a collection of records (including many relating to the early development of military and civil nuclear technology) has been temporarily withdrawn from general access. At this stage, it is still unclear how long the review will take, but the NDA does anticipate that many of the documents will be restored to the public archive in due course. In the meantime, archived material can be requested through Freedom of Information access requests.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what guidance his Department is providing to online vendors on the rules for online and distance selling after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement recently agreed between the United Kingdom and the European Union, current European Union rules relating to distance and online sales will remain in place in the United Kingdom until the end of the Implementation Period. This means businesses will be able to trade on the same regulatory terms as now up until the end of 2020.
Businesses can find regularly updated guidance on rules affecting distance sales on the Business Companion website: https://www.businesscompanion.info/en/quick-guides/distance-sales/consumer-contracts-distance-sales
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on research funding in universities.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Government is undertaking a wide range of analysis in support of our EU exit negotiations and preparations. Ministers have a specific responsibility, which Parliament has endorsed, not to release information that would reveal our negotiating position.
However, we know that as of the end of May 2018, the UK had the second highest number of project participations in Horizon 2020. This was 14.4% of the total share of funding, second only to Germany. This demonstrates that it is in the interests of the UK and EU for us to continue to collaborate on research and innovation. It also signals assurance from both sides that although we are leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe.
We have now agreed in principle the terms of the UK’s smooth and orderly exit from the EU as set out in the Withdrawal Agreement. Once ratified, the provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement will ensure UK participation in EU Programmes committed under the 2014-2020 Multi-annual Financial Framework until the closure of the programme or activity. Horizon 2020 is an EU Programme committed under the 2014-2020 MFF.
The Outline Political Declaration signifies an important milestone which explicitly provides for inclusion of terms for UK participation in EU Programmes, such as science and innovation. The UK Government has made it clear to our European neighbours that we want the option to associate to excellence-based EU research & innovation funding programmes, networks and infrastructures.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many bonuses were awarded to senior civil servants working at his Department and its agencies in each of the last six years; and what the total cost of those bonuses was.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was created on 14 July 2016. Data for the department before this date is therefore not available.
The Government is committed to transparency and regularly publishes details of non-consolidated performance-related pay for staff, including, Senior Civil Servants on .gov.uk.
From the information prepared for the next release, details for the year 2016/17 are below:
| Cost of end year performance | Number of payments |
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | £ 802,672 | 101 |
Companies House | £ 11,512 | 5 |
UK Space Agency | £ - | 0 |
Insolvency Service | £ 34,000 | 4 |
UK Intellectual Property Office | £ 8,250 | 1 |
Met Office | n/a | n/a |
Data for the year 2017/18 is not yet available as performance payments for performance in that year have not yet been agreed or paid.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which (a) external data analysts and (b) data collection companies his Department has used in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Assuming the term “data collection companies” is primarily aimed at firms which have developed or maintained some kind of database to which BEIS has access; the following list of company subscriptions have been taken out or renewed since the start of FY17/18:
BankSearch; BDRC Continental; Beauhurst; BoardEx; Capital IQ; Crunchbase; Dun & Bradstreet; Experian; GTAP; ICIS; IHS Markitt; Manifest; Navigant; Pitchbook; Springwise.
If the “collection” term is widened to more general activities then this would encompass many more companies including Ipsos MORI, NATCEN, Neisr, Mint UK (Bureau van Dijk) etc.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many investigations of breaches of section 1112 of the Companies Act 2006 have been undertaken by Companies House; and how many of those investigations (a) led to companies being dissolved and taken off the register and (b) resulted in Companies House referring the case to prosecutors.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
There have been nine investigations into breaches of section 1112 of the Companies Act 2006 by Companies House, one of which involved multiple companies. Following these investigations Companies House referred three cases to prosecutors. Two of the companies involved in those cases have now been dissolved.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
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 ensure Companies House verify the information provided on who the (a) shareholders and (b) directors are on registration documents.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Companies Act 2006 requires companies to file accurate information at Companies House. Companies House carries out a number of checks on all information filed.
A company is obliged to appoint Directors with their consent. Companies House writes to all newly appointed directors upon receipt of their details to make them aware of their obligations as a director.
A company is required to keep an up-to date register of its shareholders. A person is not legally a shareholder and is not entitled to the benefits of holding shares in a company, such as voting rights and dividends, until their holding is registered by the company. Companies House does not check the transactions when a company’s shares are transferred.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2018 to Question 131059, on Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Scotland, what the (a) job titles and (b) grades of those staff members based in Scotland are.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
For core BEIS the grades range from Administration Office (AO) to Senior Civil Servant.
The ratios per grade for core BEIS staff are set out in the table below
Grade | % of staff @ grade |
AO-EO | 30% |
HEO-SEO | 59% |
G7-G6 | 10% |
SCS | 1% |
Job titles are not held centrally as these are a matter for business areas to determine.
For BEIS Partner Organisations, staff grades and job titles are both a matter for those Organisations to determine. This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what evidence his Department holds of energy retail price caps having been successfully introduced into competitive markets in other jurisdictions.
Answered by Claire Perry
We have considered many international models but market conditions are different to the situation in GB. The Government has introduced a Bill that requires the industry regulator to cap poor value standard variable and default tariffs. This follows the Competition and Markets Authority investigation which found that domestic customers of the Big 6 energy companies pay on average £1.4bn a year more than they would in a truly competitive market. The Bill requires Ofgem to set the cap so as to protect consumers and have regard to the need to, among other things, enable competition between suppliers and ensure suppliers can finance their licenced activities.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2018 to Question 131059 on Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Scotland, what the roles of those staff members are.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The roles will cover a range of areas including research, policy, regulatory and operational delivery of which the core BEIS roles are primarily in the oil and gas environment and energy development.