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 and what proportion of applications for (a) Electricity Supply Standard Licences and (b) Gas Supply Standard Licences were granted by OFGEM in (i) 2018, (ii) 2017, (iii) 2016, (iv) 2015 and (v) 2014.
Answered by Claire Perry
This is a matter for Ofgem, who as regulator is responsible for decisions to grant, extend, restrict and revoke gas and electricity supply licences. I have asked Ofgem to write directly to the hon. Member and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
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 and what proportion of applications for (a) Electricity Supply Standard Licences and (b) Gas Supply Standard Licences were refused by OFGEM in (i) 2018, (ii) 2017, (iii) 2016, (iv) 2015 and (v) 2014.
Answered by Claire Perry
This is a matter for Ofgem, who as regulator is responsible for decisions to grant, extend, restrict and revoke gas and electricity supply licences. I have asked Ofgem to write directly to the hon. Member and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
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 of the (a) Electricity Supply Standard Licences and (b) Gas Supply Standard Licences that were granted by OFGEM in (i) 2018, (ii) 2017, (iii) 2016, (iv) 2015 and (v) 2014 remain active and continue to supply customers.
Answered by Claire Perry
This is a matter for Ofgem, who as regulator is responsible for decisions to grant, extend, restrict and revoke gas and electricity supply licences. I have asked Ofgem to write directly to the hon. Member and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
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 records his Department holds that have reached the time limit for their transfer to the National Archives but have not been transferred.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The volume of BEIS’ legacy public records that predate 1994 is currently being reassessed as part of the annual Information Management Report. The deadline for this report is 1st March 2019 which, when published, will provide exact figures on how many legacy records BEIS holds and how many of those are agreed for transfer to The National Archives (TNA).
However, internal analysis took place in late 2018 and showed that 3853 records have been reviewed and are agreed for transfer to TNA. In addition to these, 2611 have reached their time limit but have yet to be reviewed and 10125 records have been reviewed and selected for destruction.
TNA records show that all BEIS legacy records are held under a Retention Instrument (RI) covering 10599 BIS records and 1635 DECC records (RI 130, signed 20th December 2017, expires 31st December 2019). This information is published by TNA and is therefore publicly available. Following the machinery of government changes in July 2016, which occurred following the general election, a number of these records transferred out of BEIS to Other Government Departments and the remaining records are/have been reviewed as part of the plan to reduce our legacy records (i.e. those older than the maximum period records can be retained for) and, so far, the total has reduced by over 60%. The plan to address the backlog was agreed by TNA and published, and we have since been providing updates to the Advisory Council and will be expected to provide a full update again in July 2019.
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 22 January 2019 to Question 208938 on Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons: Public Records, what the titles are of the records that have been withdrawn.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
It is not possible to provide the titles for all of the records that have been placed under review, as there are in excess of 80,000. The entire Atomic Branch collection of public records have been temporarily withdrawn from open access while the Atomic Weapons Establishment and Ministry of Defence perform a review. It is expected that the majority of records will be returned to open access.
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 22 January 2019 to Question 208938 on Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons: Public Records, for what reason the review was initiated.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Shortly after the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) was established in 2005, many thousands of public records dating from the nuclear industry’s earliest days were transferred to its ownership from a range of sources, including the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) which was established in 1954 and was responsible for the UK's entire nuclear programme. The NDA is responsible for safeguarding this, and other collections, as well as ensuring compliance with legislation on public accessibility and security. The NDA, Ministry of Defence and the Atomic Weapons Establishment are jointly undertaking a security review to ensure that it is appropriate for the records to remain in the public domain. 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 via The National Archive at Kew.
During the review period, requests for the documents are being handled through the freedom of information inquiry route. Once the review is complete, it is anticipated that public access will be restored to the vast majority of the documents.
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.