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 the Government is taking to boost productivity.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Industrial Strategy is our long-term plan to boost productivity by backing businesses to create high-quality, well paid jobs throughout the United Kingdom, with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure. The Industrial Strategy is how we are creating an economy that works for everyone: highly innovative, highly skilled and high quality, supported by low taxation and smart regulation.
Through a cross-government programme, Industrial Strategy focuses on:
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 ensure that the Friends against Scams training tools and workshops operated under National Trading Standards are offered to people throughout the United Kingdom.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Friends Against Scams is a National Trading Standards (NTS) Scams Team initiative, which aims to protect people from becoming victims of scams by empowering communities to "Take a Stand Against Scams". The team works closely with local Trading Standards Services in all areas of the UK to disseminate Friends Against Scams training into local communities. The team also works with national and local organisations that have pledged their support to the initiative across the UK. Online training and free access to materials are widely available for anyone to use across the UK on the Friends Against Scams website, and more than 200,000 ‘friends’ have been trained.
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, how much grant funding has been awarded to the Met Office for volcanic ash weather monitoring in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
No grant funding has been awarded to the Met Office for this purpose in the time period specified. However the Met Office received a £3M grant in 2013 to build, operate and maintain a ground based observing capability (LiDAR network) for the purpose of detecting and measuring volcanic ash. This network become operational in 2017 and continues to be used.
The operational costs of this network are funded as part of the aviation services which the Met Office provides on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
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 proportion of electricity used in England and Wales was derived from renewable energy sources in (a) 2017 and (b) 2018.
Answered by Claire Perry
Electricity consumed in England and Wales may have been generated in other parts of the UK or imported from Europe via interconnector. At a sub-national level, BEIS cannot separately identify the original fuel for electricity consumed; however, in terms of electricity generated:
(a) In 2017, 29.3 per cent of electricity generated in the UK came from renewable sources. 26.0 per cent of electricity generated in England and Wales came from renewable sources, this was a record.
(b) Almost a third of electricity generated in 2018 quarter 3 came from renewable sources, the highest figure on record. Full figures for 2018 are not yet available. Provisional 2018 figures for renewable generation in England and Wales will be published on Thursday March 28th at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-section-6-renewables
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 his Department plans to complete its review of evidence on levelised costs of electricity generation.
Answered by Claire Perry
We are currently undertaking a review of our evidence on levelised costs of electricity generation and this will be completed in due course.