Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many doses of covid-19 vaccine were produced for the UK on 13 January 2021.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Vaccines are the way out of this pandemic and vaccine supplies are part of our critical national infrastructure. Vaccines are a precious resource in very high demand across the world; therefore, for security reasons, it is not possible to provide detail about the size of our supplies and exact detail about future deliveries.
The Government has invested over £300 million in scaling up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities, which includes investments in Wockhardt where the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is filled and finished. We continue to plan to meet our target of vaccinating all four priority groups, as identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, by the middle of February.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the daily vaccine manufacturing capacity is in the UK.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Vaccines are the way out of this pandemic and vaccine supplies are part of our critical national infrastructure. Vaccines are a precious resource in very high demand across the world; therefore, for security reasons, it is not possible to provide detail about the size of our supplies and exact detail about future deliveries.
The Government has invested over £300 million in scaling up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities, which includes investments in Wockhardt where the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is filled and finished. We continue to plan to meet our target of vaccinating all four priority groups, as identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, by the middle of February.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what is the current daily vaccine vial filling capacity in the UK; and what was the output in the week beginning 11 January.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Vaccines are the way out of this pandemic and vaccine supplies are part of our critical national infrastructure. Vaccines are a precious resource in very high demand across the world; therefore, for security reasons, it is not possible to provide detail about the size of our supplies and exact detail about future deliveries.
The Government has invested over £300 million in scaling up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities, which includes investments in Wockhardt where the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is filled and finished. We continue to plan to meet our target of vaccinating all four priority groups, as identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, by the middle of February.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many vaccine vial filling plants are operating in the UK; and are the plants operating at (a) weekends and (b) on continuous shift patterns.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million in scaling up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities, which includes investments in Wockhardt where the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is filled and finished.
Questions regarding operational matters are for the companies themselves and we continue to plan to meet our target of vaccinating all four priority groups, as identified by the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination, by the middle of February.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many doses of covid vaccine are awaiting testing; and what is the current time taken between a batch of vaccine arriving at the testing facility and being forwarded to the vial filling plant.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Vaccines are the way out of this pandemic and vaccine supplies are part of our critical national infrastructure. Vaccines are a precious resource in very high demand across the world; therefore, for security reasons, it is not possible to provide detail about the size of our supplies and exact detail about future deliveries.
The Government has invested over £300 million in scaling up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities, which includes investments in Wockhardt where the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is filled and finished. We continue to plan to meet our target of vaccinating all four priority groups, as identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, by the middle of February.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the existing weekly capacity for vaccine production is in the UK.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The UK has a strong manufacturing basis in vaccines and life sciences, with a range of sites around the country.
Through the Vaccine Taskforce, the Government has entered commercial arrangements with a number of these sites to manufacture and fill-finish COVID-19 vaccines. The Government has also invested over £230 million in expanding the UK’s vaccine manufacturing base, through several investments, such as the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre and Cell and Gene Manufacturing and Innovation Centre.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress his Department is making with industry on developing the production of hydrogen by electrolysis.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
My Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister’s recent Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution set out that the Government, working with industry, is aiming for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity in the UK by 2030. In support of this we have also announced a £240m Net Zero Hydrogen Fund for capital co-investment in new low carbon hydrogen production, to bring forward a combination of CCUS-enabled ‘blue’ hydrogen and electrolytic ‘green’ hydrogen projects. Both production methods – and other innovative techniques – will be needed to deliver hydrogen demand expected by 2050. Further details on hydrogen business models and a revenue mechanism to stimulate private sector investment in both green and blue hydrogen will be brought forward in 2021.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the UK's role is in the production consortium on green hydrogen.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
We welcome the formation of groups such as the UK Green Hydrogen Catapult, which sees a number of partners coming together to support development of green hydrogen.
In the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution and subsequent Energy White Paper, we have set out an ambitious package to grow the UK hydrogen economy. This includes £240m out to 2025 for capital co-investment in new low carbon hydrogen production, intended to support a combination of commercial-scale CCUS-enabled ‘blue’ hydrogen and smaller scale electrolytic ‘green’ hydrogen projects. Both these production methods – and other innovative techniques – will be needed to deliver UK hydrogen demand expected by 2050. Working with industry, we are aiming for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030.
We are already supporting a range of innovative hydrogen projects across the value chain, including the ITM Power Gigafactory being built in Sheffield. When complete this will be the largest electrolyser manufacturing facility in the world and would be able to support the scaling up of electrolytic ‘green’ hydrogen.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
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 implications for security and stability of the National Grid of the need to issue System Warnings on 4 and 5 November 2020.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) is responsible for ensuring security of supply on a day-to-day basis and possesses a range of tools to keep the system in balance. As a result of tight margins on the electricity system - driven by weather conditions, availability of generators and demand levels - NGESO issued Electricity Margin Notices (EMNs) on 3 and 4 November 2020 to ask for more generation to be brought onto the system to provide a larger cushion of surplus capacity. EMNs are part of NGESO’s standard procedure for balancing supply and demand, and both notices were cancelled after sufficient generation became available. The system worked as designed.
The forecast electricity margin for this winter is healthy, at 4.8GW or 8.3% additional generation. We remain confident that NGESO is well-equipped to ensure electricity security in a wide range of circumstances this winter, all of which meet the Government’s Reliability Standard.
In future we expect GB’s energy mix to continue to diversify, including greater levels of offshore wind, storage, Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and nuclear, as well as more interconnection to Europe and wider access to the electricity market. NGESO has plans in place to transform the operation of the electricity system so that it is ready for zero-carbon operation in 2025.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
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 is taking to ensure that remote digital workers are being paid the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Paul Scully
Anyone who is deemed to be a “worker” is entitled to be paid at least the relevant National Minimum or Living Wage rate. This applies to all workers, including remote digital workers, who work, or ordinarily work, in the UK.
We are clear that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum or Living Wage should receive it and we will take action where employers have been found to be in breach of the law.
This Government continues to invest heavily in minimum wage compliance and enforcement, more than doubling the budget to £27.5 million for 2020/21, up from £13.2 million in 2015/16.
Any worker who feels that they have been underpaid can contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) helpline for confidential, impartial and free advice on 0300 123 1100 or at www.acas.org.uk. HM Revenue and Customs, which is responsible for enforcing minimum wage legislation, will consider every complaint it receives.