Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his planned timetable is for the £600 energy payment to households in Northern Ireland to (a) begin to be paid and (b) be concluded.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 19th December, the Government announced that all households in Northern Ireland will receive support with their energy bills this winter through a single payment of £600. This is made up of £400 of the Energy Bills Support Scheme and £200 of the Alternative Fuel Payment. This will be delivered through electricity suppliers, with payments starting in January and concluding as soon as is reasonably practicable.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 Answer of 4 November 2021 to Question 67078 on Future Fund, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the British Business Bank's performance on its objectives of (a) identifying and (b) reducing imbalances in access to finance for small businesses in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The British Business Bank has an objective to identify and help to reduce imbalances in access to finance for smaller businesses across the UK. In 2021/22, the Bank supported £166 million of funding to 2,699 businesses in Northern Ireland.
At Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced over £1.6 billion for the British Business Bank’s Nations and Regions Investment Funds, including a new £70m Investment Fund for Northern Ireland.
The Bank gathers data and publishes research to identify gaps and imbalances in access to finance, including the Nations and Regions Tracker, available at https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/research/nations-and-regions-tracker-2022/.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 hold discussions with trade bodies representing oil companies on the extent of variances of forecourt prices for petrol and diesel.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Following the Government’s request for an urgent review of the fuel market, the Competition and Markets Authority published its road fuel report on 8 July. Its initial findings were that the UK retail fuel market appears to be competitive but areas for further investigation were identified. A market study to look at the growing gap between the oil price, and the wholesale price of petrol and diesel was launched which will make recommendations where there are no legitimate reasons for this. The Government will carefully consider, alongside relevant industry partners, any recommendations made in the study.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 number of energy suppliers that have ceased trading in each of the last two years; what estimate he has made of the number of consumers that have been transferred to alternative energy suppliers as a result; and what estimate he has made of the total additional estimated cost to consumers of those transfers.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information on energy suppliers that have ceased trading, and their customer base, is published by the regulator Ofgem at https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/check-whos-taken-over-your-energy-supply.
Suppliers can make a claim for the unrecoverable costs of acting as the supplier of last resort. The individual claims and decisions can be found on Ofgem’s website.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 take steps to ensure that companies listed in the UK which are engaged in lithium mining in the UK do not fall under the control of the Government of the People's Republic of China.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Mergers and takeovers are primarily commercial matters for the parties involved. The Government has powers under the Enterprise Act 2002 to intervene in transactions which raise national security concerns. The Government has recently strengthened those powers through the National Security and Investment Act 2021.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to respond to Question 60360 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points tabled by the hon. Member for East Londonderry on 21 October 2021.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Hon. Member received a response on 27th October.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 that the increase in annual core funding for Innovate UK will help support organisations based in Northern Ireland.
Answered by George Freeman
Innovation is at the heart of the UK’s strategy to boost productivity and international competitiveness. Cutting-edge businesses require access to growth capital and funding for high-risk, high-reward innovation activities available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions. Since 2004, Innovate UK has offered over £158 million in grants for R&D to businesses in Northern Ireland.
Spending Review 2021 secures increased funding for core Innovate UK programmes, reaching c.£1 billion per year by 2024/25 (over £300 million more than in 2021/22) to ensure it can support business in bringing innovations to market and drive economic growth. The money will be used to help boost private sector investment across the whole of the UK, creating the right conditions for all businesses to innovate and giving them the confidence to do so.
Following the Spending Review, BEIS will set R&D budgets through to 2024/25. Further details of how this funding will be allocated will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he undertake a review of Enterprise Zones to date to establish whether further steps can be taken to increase their effectiveness.
Answered by Paul Scully
Enterprise Zones have been a very successful government policy. They drive growth in local economies, by attracting and supporting businesses, which increases investment and employment to the area. There are no current plans to review Enterprise Zones; however, the experience of delivering Enterprise Zones has informed the development of the Government's new Freeports programme.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 promote energy efficient heat pump systems to (a) domestic and (b) commercial markets.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Through its Heat and Buildings Strategy the Government has set out a policy framework to support the development of the heat pump market towards 600,000 installations per year by 2028.
The Government has announced grants of up to £6,000 for installing heat pumps in homes and small commercial properties, through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Support for heat pumps in domestic properties is also available via the Home Upgrade Grant and Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
The Government is also consulting on a on a new market-based incentive for heating system manufacturers to be introduced from 2024 and options to phase out new installations of fossil fuel heating in off-gas grid non-domestic buildings from 2024 and homes from 2026.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 estimate of the number of additional public facing charging points that will be required for electric vehicles in the next eight years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Building on the £1.9bn from Spending Review 2020, the Government has committed an additional £620m to support the transition to electric vehicles. The additional funding will support the rollout of charging infrastructure, with a particular focus on local on street residential charging, and targeted plug-in vehicle grants.
Government and industry have supported the installation of almost 26,000 publicly available charging devices. This includes more than 4,900 rapid devices – one of the largest networks in Europe.
Later this year Government will publish an EV Infrastructure Strategy to set out the vision and action plan for charging infrastructure rollout needed to achieve the 2030/35 phase out successfully. It will also discuss possible ranges for the numbers of chargepoints required, recognising that charging habits are likely to evolve over time, and that needs will differ between local areas.