Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has plans to develop innovative and effective alternatives to animal experiments as part of its efforts to make the UK a science superpower.
Answered by George Freeman
UK Research and Innovation encourages the development of new methodologies in all areas of health research and funds the development of non-animal technologies both directly through research council funding rounds and by its core funding commitment to the National Centre for 3Rs of £49.1 million over 5 years.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council has just launched £4 million of funding targeted at developing the next generation of non-animal technology and driving the uptake of existing non-animal technology.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 impact of the exclusion of the metal recycling sector from the Red Diesel Replacement competition on that industry’s capacity to decarbonise.
Answered by Greg Hands
The £40m Red Diesel Replacement (RDR) innovation programme focusses on construction/mining/quarrying sectors, accounting for 63% of UK red-diesel usage. https://www.e4tech.com/resources/248-e4tech-and-cenex-engage-sectors-that-use-red-diesel-to-identify-innovation-needs-for-low-carbon-alternatives.php. However, technologies developed and lessons learned through RDR will also benefit the metals recycling sector.
Other Government support includes:
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 had recent discussions with representatives of the metals recycling sector on the potential impact on their businesses of the loss of their entitlement to use red diesel.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Government recognised that the changes to red diesel entitlements announced at Budget 2020 would be a significant change for some businesses and ran a consultation to gather information from affected users on the expected impact of these tax changes. As part of this, the Government engaged directly with a wide variety of organisations from all parts of the UK and carefully analysed all consultation responses received, including from the British Metals Recycling Association.
The metals recycling sector is eligible for support through the £289 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) and the £34 million Scottish IETF. These programmes provide capital support to industrial sites, helping them to become more energy efficient and to switch away from fossil fuels to lower carbon alternatives. We have recently promoted this funding opportunity with the British Metals Recycling Association, welcoming applications from sites impacted by the removal of the red diesel rebate.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 make a statement on the Government’s Spending Review commitment to extend funding for the Aerospace Technology Institute to 2031 to meet its Jet Zero ambitions.
Answered by Lee Rowley
At the October Spending Review, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer extended the £1.95 billion funding commitment to the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme from 2026 to 2031. To date, £1.6 billion has been awarded to over 340 collaborative R&D projects spread across the UK. This activity will help to drive the development of new low and zero-carbon emission aircraft technology, which forms an important part of our Jet Zero ambition to decarbonise aviation.
We will work through the annual profile of funding for the ATI programme, including when the programme will re-open to new R&D grant applications, over the coming months. Further information on the programme will be provided following that work.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 tackle gaps in consumer protections for people making energy efficiency improvements to homes and installing low-carbon heating in the forthcoming Net Zero Strategy.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government remains committed to ensuring that improvements meet high standards and provide appropriate consumer protection.
The forthcoming Net Zero Strategy and Heat and Buildings Strategy will look to further address consumer protection.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to (a) conduct and (b) provide funding for external organisations to conduct research into the effectiveness of covid-19 vaccinations for (a) people with blood cancer and (b) other immunocompromised people.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
UKRI is currently funding one study of direct relevance to these areas. UKRI has allocated an initial £1.8 million to the OCTAVE study, led by Professor Iain McInnes, University of Glasgow, for a twelve-month period, and is considering a case for additional funding beyond this. OCTAVE is supporting research on vaccine responses in groups of immune-supressed individuals, including those with inflammatory disorders, high risk cancer patient groups, and patients with severe kidney and liver disease. Cancer patient groups include chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, myeloma, acute leukaemia, and bone marrow transplants. As the OCTAVE study is being managed as a single project it is not possible to give costs for the individual groups.
In addition, there are proposals on vaccine responses in high-risk clinical groups under consideration as part of the UKRI COVID-19 Agile call, with announcements to be made shortly. Furthermore, UKRI continues to accept applications for COVID-19 related research, including on this topic, through its active calls, which can be found on the UKRI website.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Transport Secretary on plans for lifting covid-19 international travel restrictions to give the aerospace sector the long-term vision to recover from the pandemic.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department is in regular contact with the Department for Transport on the impacts of COVID-19 on the aerospace sector. Both BEIS and the Department for Transport (DfT) recognise the importance of the UK aerospace industry to the economy and the vital role it will play in the post-pandemic recovery.
DfT engages with the industry via multiple channels, focusing on a wide range of issues affecting the industry such as EU Exit transition, Covid-19 impact, technical certification and specification, and international cooperation.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 make it his policy to support a roadmap to recovery for the pub and brewing sector to provide (a) financial and fiscal support throughout 2021 and (b) proportional easing of covid-19 restrictions for that sector at the earliest opportunity.
Answered by Paul Scully
Over the course of the pandemic, the Government has worked closely with the hospitality sector to understand the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses and has responded with a substantial package of business support. We keep all restrictions under constant review.