Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much public money was allocated to the British Business Bank for the (a) 2023-4 and (b) 2024-5 financial years.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Public funding for the British Business Bank’s DEL funding, Business As Usual programmes and administration of the Covid-19 loan schemes, for 2023/24 is expected to be up to £735m. The projected figure for 2024/25 is £357m. Any capital gains will be returned to the taxpayer over the course of the investment cycle.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of the average cost to the public purse of the (a) capital set-up and (b) revenue for the first five years for the provision of (i) a home, (ii) NHS care, (iii) school places and (iv) other public services for migrants paid below the national average wage.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office has previously estimated the cost of migrants to the UK in terms of NHS care, education and social services (welfare) payments. This analysis did not consider different earnings thresholds, nor did it consider capital and revenue costs of housing, which would be outside the Home Office’s remit.
Home Office analysis can be found in table A4.2 in the Impact Assessment “The Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020”: The Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 (legislation.gov.uk).
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to Gridwatch.co.uk figures, for what reason the proportion of imported energy was over 25% on 25 February 2024.
Answered by Graham Stuart
On 25 February 2024, low wind generation in GB combined with high wind generation in Europe supported a price differential with Europe which led to higher imports. Interconnectors import when prices in GB are higher than on the other side of the interconnector.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants on full-time contracts there were in each year since 2019.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
National Statistics on the number of full-time and part-time civil servants are published each quarter by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of their Public Sector Employment statistical release. The latest available statistics were published in December 2023 and at Table 8 show the number of full-time civil servants as at 30 September 2023. The next ONS publication is scheduled for release on 12 March 2024 and will show the number of civil servants as at 31 December. Statistics for 2019 and all previous and upcoming releases can be found on the ONS website at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 9 January 2024 to Question 7768 on Oil: Refineries, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery on imports.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The owners of Grangemouth refinery, Petroineos, recently announced that they were putting in place the enabling works for a future transition to an import terminal. Petroineos have not taken a decision on when refining operations will cease but they anticipate they will continue until at least May 2025.
The impact of a cessation of refining operations on UK imports will depend on the supply and demand for fuels at the time. The Government’s Net Zero policies to increase use of electric vehicles and renewable transport fuels, will progressively reduce demand for conventional fuels.
The UK already both imports and exports fuels to balance demand and supply. The Petroineos plans should continue to ensure that customer needs are met.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make a comparative assessment of energy prices for steel production in (a) the UK, (b) China, (c) Germany and (d) the US.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Comparisons with energy costs in other countries is one of the considerations for the development and introduction of support for energy intensive industries including the steel sector. The British Industry Supercharger will introduce targeted measures to ensure the energy costs for key UK industries are in line with other major economies around the world – levelling the playing field for British companies across Europe. The government is committed to rolling out its measures between April 2024 and April 2025.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to (a) allow multiple train operating companies to operate on each rail line and (b) take other steps to help increase competition on regional lines.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We recognise that competition can be beneficial for passengers as it can drive innovation and improvements to services. We have been clear that, in the right circumstances, open access operators can play a role in increasing this competition and have supported recent applications such as Wrexham, Shropshire & Midland Railway’s application to operate services for customers in North Wales, the West Midlands and on the West Coast Mainline.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether Ministers approved the contracts to implement the Horizon system in Post Offices.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Horizon IT Inquiry considered the procurement of the Horizon IT system during Phase 2. We should wait for the Inquiry to report.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what are the losses by the Bank of England on holding its bond portfolio that the Treasury has had to reimburse so far in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data on these quarterly cash transfers between HM Treasury and the Bank of England are made publicly available by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in their monthly Public Sector Finances publication. The data is available at the following link under the ONS series ID MF7A in worksheet PSA9B:
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his Department's forecast is for the cost of indexation of the index linked debt on the debt interest charge for the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office for Budget Responsibility is the UK’s official forecaster, a breakdown of debt interest costs including the interest payable on index-linked gilts is available in the OBR’s detailed aggregates table 6.16 which is published alongside their March 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.