Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 paper by Chatham House and Woodwell Climate Research Center, published on 14 October 2021, what steps he is taking to help reduce the use of biomass for energy production and to increase the use of renewable sources, including wind and solar power, in the context of the finding that treating biomass from forests as a zero-carbon fuel risks not being in line with the Paris Agreement.
Answered by Greg Hands
Sustainable biomass has played a vital role in the UK’s decarbonisation efforts to date and is an important part of the UK’s renewable energy mix. The Government recognises the need to ensure that biomass is prioritised where it brings about GHG emission reductions in hard to decarbonise sectors without other viable alternatives. The CCC and the National Grid’s 2020 Future Energy Scenarios indicated that it is not possible to achieve net zero without Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). The Government has committed to establishing the role that BECCS could play in reducing carbon emissions across the economy.
The Government will continue to support a diversity of renewable technologies including wind and solar, through the Contracts for Difference scheme. The next allocation round will open in December 2021, with a draft budget of £265 million. In the Net Zero Strategy, the Government has committed to a sustained increase in the deployment of renewable generation technologies, such as solar and onshore wind in the 2020s and beyond, and to deliver 40GW from offshore wind by 2030.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 (a) potential effect of subsidies given to companies burning biomass for power generation on the UK's carbon emissions and (b) potential merits of redirecting that funding to more renewable sources.
Answered by Greg Hands
Sustainable biomass has played a vital role in the UK’s decarbonisation efforts to date and is an important part of the UK’s renewable energy mix. The Government recognises the need to ensure that biomass is prioritised where it brings about GHG emission reductions in hard to decarbonise sectors without other viable alternatives. The CCC and the National Grid’s 2020 Future Energy Scenarios indicated that it is not possible to achieve net zero without Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). The Government has committed to establishing the role that BECCS could play in reducing carbon emissions across the economy.
The Government will continue to support a diversity of renewable technologies including wind and solar, through the Contracts for Difference scheme. The next allocation round will open in December 2021, with a draft budget of £265 million. In the Net Zero Strategy, the Government has committed to a sustained increase in the deployment of renewable generation technologies, such as solar and onshore wind in the 2020s and beyond, and to deliver 40GW from offshore wind by 2030.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 impact of wood-burning for electricity on the UK’s carbon emissions; and what steps his Department is taking to encourage a transition away from biomass burning for power generation.
Answered by Greg Hands
Sustainable biomass has played a vital role in the UK’s decarbonisation efforts to date and is an important part of the UK’s renewable energy mix. The Government recognises the need to ensure that biomass is prioritised where it brings about GHG emission reductions in hard to decarbonise sectors without other viable alternatives. The CCC and the National Grid’s 2020 Future Energy Scenarios indicated that it is not possible to achieve net zero without Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). The Government has committed to establishing the role that BECCS could play in reducing carbon emissions across the economy.
The Government will continue to support a diversity of renewable technologies including wind and solar, through the Contracts for Difference scheme. The next allocation round will open in December 2021, with a draft budget of £265 million. In the Net Zero Strategy, the Government has committed to a sustained increase in the deployment of renewable generation technologies, such as solar and onshore wind in the 2020s and beyond, and to deliver 40GW from offshore wind by 2030.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 has taken to progress the delivery of the Life Sciences Vision.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government, NHS and Life Science Sector have already made significant progress in delivering the Life Science Vision. Activity since publication includes the establishment and delivery of the Life Science Scale Up Taskforce, work to improve the NHS’s capacity and capability to utilise new technologies, and innovation work by the Vaccine Taskforce and Antivirals Taskforce to secure access to cutting new technologies to address COVID-19.
Following the conclusion of the 2021 Spending Review on 27th October, the Government has confirmed specific funds will be provided upfront to directly support the delivery of the Life Sciences Vision.
This includes £95m funding to support the uptake of innovative drugs and technologies and address a number of the Healthcare Missions outlined in the Vision, drive new initiatives through Genomics England to deliver life-changing technologies, and £354m to strengthen the UK’s Life Sciences manufacturing base. This builds on significant programmes of investment in Health Research across DHSC and BEIS, and the largest ever increases in the NHS’s operating budget.
The Office for Life Sciences are currently working with partner organisations to develop an implementation plan, which will deliver on the commitments as set out in the Life Sciences Vision. Further details on the implementation plan will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the (a) manufacturing sector, (b) finance sector, (c) hospitality sector, (d) retail sector and (e) long-term fiscal security of urban communities.
Answered by Paul Scully
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every region and sector of the UK economy. That is why the Government provided businesses with an unprecedented support package of £352 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. In July, we published the first ever Hospitality strategy: reopening, recovery, resilience, along with the Build Back Better High Streets Strategy, in support of city and town centre businesses.
My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer set out further steps to help the economy recover in the Autumn Budget. These included extending the Recovery Loan Scheme until June 2022, providing over £1 billion to ensure businesses can continue to access loans and other finance, and a 50% business rates discount for companies in retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors for the year 2022-23.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 potential (a) economic and (b) environmental effects of relying on gas as a transition source of energy.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government has published a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy, which outlines measures to transition to a green and sustainable future, helping businesses and consumers to move to clean power.
The Government is taking a range of steps to decarbonise gas and to develop alternatives to unabated gas-fired generation in the electricity system, including CCUS-enabled generation, hydrogen-fired generation, BECCS, and flexible storage, which means that gas generation will be used less frequently in the future (except in limited circumstances where it may be required to provide security of supply).
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 help ensure that any future increase in electricity demand is met with energy produced in a renewable manner.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Net Zero Strategy reaffirmed the UK’s ambitious target to deliver 40GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, including 1GW of floating offshore wind, alongside the expansion of other low-cost renewable technologies such as onshore wind and solar.
We have also set out the biggest ever Contracts for Difference round – the UK's main support mechanism for large-scale renewable generation –representing a major step towards the sustained growth in renewables needed over the next decade to meet the UK’s decarbonisation ambitions.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 potential effect of the volatility in gas prices on the UK's (a) energy security and (b) transition to renewable resources.
Answered by Greg Hands
Higher wholesale gas prices have been seen globally in 2021 due to multiple international factors in supply and demand. The UK has highly diverse sources of gas supply and a diverse electricity mix, which ensures households, businesses, and heavy industry get the energy they need. National Grid Gas’s Winter Outlook notes the supply margin has increased compared to last winter and is sufficient in all of their modelled scenarios. Similarly, National Grid Electricity System Operator’s 2021 Winter Outlook Report confirms that there will be sufficient capacity available for the coming winter.
The Government has published a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy, which outlines measures to transition to a green and sustainable future, helping businesses and consumers to move to clean power, so that households and businesses will be much better protected from energy price spikes caused by volatile international fuel markets.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 contribution of fossil-fuel reliant companies to the UK’s transition to net zero; and what steps he is taking to ensure that those companies contribute to the costs of managing pollution, with reference to public debt.
Answered by Greg Hands
As set out in the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, the costs of net zero must be shared fairly between the taxpayer, industry and its customers. HM Treasury’s Net Zero Review considers the potential exposure of businesses and households to the transition, and highlights factors to be taken into account when designing policy that will allocate costs over this time horizon.
The Government has already established a UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) which demonstrates the UK’s commitment to carbon pricing as an effective tool that will help fulfil our climate change objectives. The UK ETS will be the world’s first net zero cap and trade market, delivering a robust carbon price signal and promoting cost-effective decarbonisation by allowing businesses to cut carbon where it is cheapest to do so.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 adequacy of the investment in heat pumps announced in the Heat and buildings strategy, published on 19 October 2021, for meeting the Government's aim for 600,000 installations a year by 2028.
Answered by Greg Hands
As set out in the Heat and Buildings Strategy, a range of policies will be needed to ensure the heat pump market supports 600,000 installations per year by 2028.
Key measures within this package include the £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the Future Homes Standard and Future Buildings Standards which will drive low carbon heating in new buildings; a new market-based incentive for heating system manufacturers to be introduced from 2024; and consulting on measures to phase out new installations of fossil fuel heating in areas located off the gas grid from the mid-2020s. Support for heat pump installation will also be available through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant schemes.
The package combines targeted funding to kickstart market growth with incentives and regulations to provide long-term policy clarity for industry that will rapidly drive down costs and increase deployment in line with Government’s stated ambitions.