Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of the North West Coast Connections Project if cables through the Lake District National Park are (a) routed underground and (b) not routed underground.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Under the current energy market framework, the development of the transmission network in England and Wales is a matter for National Grid, and this includes assessment of the costs of any particular route or approach on specific projects, such as for the proposed North West Coast Connections. National Grid’s costs are regulated by Ofgem to ensure they are justified and efficient.
The grant of planning consent for any energy project, including new transmission assets, would be considered by my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy under the Planning Act 2008, but the proposed project has not reached that stage.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many (a) help to buy, (b) shared ownership and (c) social housing new build properties participate in a district heating system.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2016 to Question 41211, what steps she plans to take to ensure that heat networks provide value for money for customers.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are putting consumers at the heart of the heat network programme.
DECC published the Heat Network Investment Project consultation last week[1]. The consultation explicitly says one of the key criteria for receiving funding will be value for money for consumers. We are also consulting on whether to make our support conditional on schemes signing up to Heat Trust and the ADE/CIBSE Code of Practice. The consultation closes on 3 August.
[1] Heat Networks Investment Project: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532483/HNIP_consultation_vFINAL.pdf
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what support the Government plans to provide to communities in (a) West Cumbria and (b) Somerset (i) during and (ii) after the construction of new nuclear development in those areas.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government aims to maximise the supply chain, skills and infrastructure opportunities from new nuclear development for host communities. DECC chairs fora in both West Cumbria and Somerset that bring together senior stakeholders, including local and central Government. During construction of a nuclear plant, local communities receive funding from the developer through a mechanism in the Development Consent Order. We also encourage communities to bid for Government funding to capitalise on new nuclear opportunities, such as the upcoming Growth Deal 3. In 2013 the Government announced a Community Benefit package for new nuclear host communities once a plant begins operating. This totals £1000 per megawatt of capacity for each year of the plant’s initial life.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to her Oral Answer of 19 November 2015, Official Report, columns 813-14, on the district heating sector, what recent assessment she has made of consumer confidence in district heating systems.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government supports heat networks because, in the right circumstances and where efficiently operated, they can provide a cheaper, lower carbon heating solution than separate heating systems in individual dwellings. We know that not all existing heat networks meet these conditions. Consumer confidence will be vital to enable the sector to grow.
DECC wants to see the development of schemes that do not detrimentally affect their customers and we have made clear that any funding provided through DECC’s Heat Network Investment Project will need to demonstrate this in the consultation document published today www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-the-heat-networks-investment-project-hnip.
We have also been working closely with industry on the development of ‘Heat Trust’, a voluntary consumer protection scheme for heat network customers and on the development of the Heat Network Code of Practice, which sets minimum standards for the design, installation and operation of heat networks. More details can be found on these initiatives here:
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to her Oral Answer of 19 November 2015, Official Report, columns 813-14, on district heating systems, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Heat Trust.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Heat Trust was launched on 25 November 2015. Heat Trust is a voluntary, industry-led scheme established with the aim of setting consumer protection standards for heat network suppliers.
Since its launch, Heat Trust has grown with 42 schemes in membership covering over 22,300 connections. All the schemes in membership are named on the Heat Trust website: http://www.heattrust.org/index.php/members
For the first time, domestic and micro-business customers on these networks have direct recourse to the independent Energy Ombudsman. 19 customers have used the Ombudsman Service so far. The Ombudsman has upheld two complaints in the customer’s favour and one reached a mutually accepted solution.
DECC sits on the Heat Trust Committee, which provides oversight of the scheme. We will continue to monitor the development of Heat Trust closely over the coming months.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to gather data on the prevalence of paid and unpaid internships.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Government has no current plans to quantify the number of paid and unpaid interns. There is no legal definition of an intern, but all those who qualify as ‘workers’ are entitled to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his policy is on introducing a legal or standard definition of an internship.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Government has no plans to create a legal or standard definition of an internship.
Depending on the reality of the employment relationship an intern could be classed as a worker, an employee or a volunteer.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans she has to extend consumer protections to customers of district heating schemes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my rt. hon Friend the Secretary of State to the Hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich on 19 November 2015, Official Report Column 813-814:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm151119/debtext/151119-0001.htm
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department plans to collect data on Government funding allocated to brain tumour research.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Department does not routinely collect data on government funding for research in specific disease areas or conditions. However, information on spending on research into cancer, including research on brain tumours, is collected by the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), a UK-wide partnership between the government, charity and industry which promotes co-operation in cancer research among the 22 member organisations.
Information on all Research Council and Innovate UK research funding is published on the RCUK Gateway to Research (http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/).