Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what payments have been under the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive scheme in each of (a) 2020 and (b) 2021.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme payments are accounted for by financial year (FY), ending 31 March. In terms of committed payments, which include actual payments made and expected payments due but not yet claimed for, our latest estimation is that committed payments for FY2020/21 are £917m and £992m for FY2021/22.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the total cost to the Government was of its agreement in September 2021 to meet the costs to CF Industries of reopening one or more of its sites producing commercial carbon dioxide.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
This is commercially sensitive information that relates to a company’s production costs and sales. It is not appropriate to provide figures of costs at this time. Details of our support will be published in the 2021-22 BEIS Annual Report and Accounts which will be available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much his Department spent in total on social media advertising in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021 and (d) 2022 as of 28 February 2022; and on which platforms that money was spent.
Answered by George Freeman
Social media advertising spend by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is included in marketing spend data published on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-spend-control-data.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
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 made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the forecast of a 190 year carbon payback time for the switch from burning coal to burning wood in the Climatic Change journal article entitled Harvesting in boreal forests and the biofuel carbon debt.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government only supports biomass that complies with strict sustainability criteria. In a sustainably managed forest, there will be stands of trees each of different ages, which will be harvested in gradual sequence, and replaced, as they reach maturity. There is evidence to suggest that the overall age profile of the forest therefore remains constant, and carbon sequestration can be maintained decade after decade.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the amount of CO2 that is produced per Megawatt-hour by the Drax power station through the burning of (a) coal and (b) wood pellets in terms of (i) supply chain and (ii) chimney emissions.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Data regarding the electricity generation in megawatt-hours derived from burning wood pellets and coal at the Drax Power Station is not available.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
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 page 43 of his Department's Statistical Release of 29 July 2021 entitled Digest of UK Energy Statistics Annual data for UK, 2020, for what reason domestic wood consumption was revised down from 2,241 kilotonnes to 733 kilotonnes in the 2018 reference year.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Domestic wood consumption was revised in July 2021 to incorporate the results of research undertaken by The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
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 implications for his policies of the Climate Change Committee’s UK Health Expert Advisory Group’s report, Sustainable Health Equity: Achieving a Net Zero UK, published 6 November 2020; and when that assessment was made.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is grateful to the Climate Change Committee for the wide range of advice it provides government, which is considered on an ongoing basis. In June 2021, the published impact assessment for the sixth carbon budget considered a range of relevant evidence to provide a solid basis for the government’s decision on the budget level, including the Climate Change Committee’s UK Health Expert Advisory Group’s report, ‘Sustainable Health Equity: Achieving a Net Zero UK’. The Net Zero Strategy, published in October 2021, then set out the Government’s vision for making the transition to net zero, which can bring significant benefits for physical and mental health.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many journalists or media organisations contacted his Department in December 2021 to enquire about the implementation of the new Ecodesign Regulations relating to wood or solid burning appliances in domestic premises from 1 January 2022.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department has no record of any media queries related to EcoDesign regulations in December 2021.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
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 ensure consistently high standards in (a) approval processes and (b) testing for wood burning appliances or ranges of appliances before they receive an Ecolabel rating.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Prior to placing a product on the market, manufacturers must demonstrate conformity with the implementing measures as set out in the product specific regulations. This includes a declaration of conformity and technical documentation, and can include relevant standards used to demonstrate compliance. This technical documentation must be kept by the manufacturer for a period of 10 years after production and made available to the market surveillance authority, who can conduct independent testing after the product has launched on the market.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
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 ensure consistently high standards in (a) approval processes and (b) testing for individual wood burning appliances or ranges of appliances before they are certified as complying with the requirements of the Ecodesign Regulations.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Prior to placing a product on the market, manufacturers must demonstrate conformity with the implementing measures as set out in the product specific regulations. This includes a declaration of conformity and technical documentation, and can include relevant standards used to demonstrate compliance. This technical documentation must be kept by the manufacturer for a period of 10 years after production and made available to the market surveillance authority, who can conduct independent testing after the product has launched on the market.