Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
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 introduction of covid 19 travel restrictions in November and December 2021, what plans the Government has to provide additional support to the to the travel industry.
Answered by Paul Scully
The aviation sector is crucial to the UK’s economy and businesses across the industry that are experiencing difficulties have been able to draw from the unprecedented package of support, including around £8bn for the air transport sector since the start of the pandemic.
The travel and tourism industries are also crucial to the UK economy, and that is why we have provided support of over £35 billion to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks. On top of the Government’s wider economic support package, we have extended business rates relief and introduced Restart grants of up to £18,000 for many in the sector.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
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 holds any information on companies where the Directors have made major decisions while not having quoracy.
Answered by Paul Scully
Companies House does not hold any information on companies where the directors have made major decisions while not having quoracy.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to implement the recommendations of the Sixth Report of Session 2019-21 of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme, published on 29 April 2021.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I am grateful for the Committee’s report, and I am considering their recommendations. I am due to the meet the Scheme Trustees on 21 June, and I am keen to hear their views before responding to the Select Committee.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many people were in fuel poverty, in each year from 2010 to 2021.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Fuel poverty is measured at the household level. Using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) indicator, a household is considered to be fuel poor if it is living in a property with a fuel poverty energy efficiency rating of band D, E, F or G and its after housing costs income minus its energy costs would be less than 60 per cent of the median after housing costs income.” The number of households in fuel poverty in England between 2010 and 2019, the latest year for which statistics are available is shown in the table below:
Table 1 - Total number of households living in fuel poverty, 2010-2019 | |||
| Year | Number of households (000's) | Proportion of fuel poor households (%) |
Fuel poor | 2010 | 4,780 | 22.1 |
| 2011 | 4,726 | 21.6 |
| 2012 | 4,351 | 19.8 |
| 2013 | 4,186 | 18.5 |
| 2014 | 3,905 | 17.3 |
| 2015 | 3,778 | 16.7 |
| 2016 | 3,731 | 16.2 |
| 2017 | 3,739 | 16.1 |
| 2018 | 3,517 | 15.0 |
| 2019 | 3,176 | 13.4 |
Note: This is based on the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency metric, 2010-2019 | |||
Further details on trends in fuel poverty in England can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fuel-poverty-trends-2021.
Following the publication of the 2019 fuel poverty statistics on 4th March, projections for 2020 and 2021 are due to be published on the 29th of April this year.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the average dual energy bill was for a household in (a) Hemsworth Parliamentary constituency and (b) Yorkshire and the Humber region in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Data on household electricity and gas energy bills are published as part of the Quarterly Energy Prices statistical series (here). The department collects this information at the regional level and does not hold it at the constituency level. Data on the average annual domestic electricity bills for UK regions are presented in table QEP 2.2.3 and average annual domestic gas bills for GB regions are presented in table QEP 2.3.3 (here).
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
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 reduce fuel poverty in winter 2020-21.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Improving the energy efficiency of homes is the best long-term solution to tackle fuel poverty. The Energy Company Obligation is a GB wide energy efficiency scheme worth £640m per year until March 2022 and is focused on low-income and vulnerable households. The Green Homes Grant, launched in September 2020, is a £2 billion programme which will help improve the energy efficiency of homes in England. Of this, around half is specifically for low income, vulnerable and fuel poor households.
We recognise that some households may need immediate support this winter and so we provide assistance with energy bills for low income and vulnerable consumers through the Warm Home Discount, Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments.
We have also successfully negotiated an agreement with energy suppliers to support customers impacted by COVID-19. Based on the circumstances, this could include reassessing, reducing, or pausing debt repayments for households in financial distress and support for prepayment meter customers to stay on supply.
The energy price cap currently protects around 11 million households in Great Britain on standard variable and default tariffs. From January 2021 a further 4 million households with prepayment meters will also come under the protection of the cap after the prepayment meter price cap expires. The cap ensures that loyal energy customers are protected from poor value tariffs, saving consumers a total of around £1 billion on their bills annually.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many people in (a) Hemsworth Parliamentary constituency and (b) Yorkshire and the Humber region were living in fuel poverty in each year since 2010 and up to and including 2020.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The table below shows the estimated number of households living in fuel poverty for the requested areas:
Year | Hemsworth Parliamentary constituency | Yorkshire and the Humber region |
2010 | n/a | 269,000 |
2011 | 4,100 | 271,000 |
2012 | 3,800 | 266,000 |
2013 | 3,600 | 244,000 |
2014 | 4,300 | 271,000 |
2015 | 4,300 | 282,000 |
2016 | 4,700 | 275,000 |
2017 | 4,200 | 244,000 |
2018 | 3,800 | 236,000 |
The latest available estimates are for 2018. Estimates for fuel poverty in 2010 have not been made at sub-regional level under the current Low Income High Costs metric.
Also note, estimates of fuel poverty at the sub-regional level are based on a small number households and are therefore subject to higher levels of uncertainty in particular when comparing changes over time.
The regional data in the table above was taken from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fuel-poverty-trends-2020 table 4.
The parliamentary constituency data in the table above was taken from https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-sub-regional-statistics.
For example, the data for 2018 was found in table 5 of the following:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sub-regional-fuel-poverty-data-2020.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
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 help prevent jobs at Rolls Royce in Barnoldswick being offshored.
Answered by Paul Scully
Rolls-Royce has made clear that the restructuring and global site review reflects the change in medium-term market conditions which have been impacted by the global COVID19 pandemic. Rolls-Royce has announced proposals to consolidate work into the UK including consolidating all widebody engine Assembly & Test capability in Derby, as well as closing a site in the US and consolidating the advanced manufacturing capabilities into Derby and Washington, Tyne & Wear.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to provide additional support to the hospitality sector affected by covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Answered by Paul Scully
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has worked closely with the hospitality sector to understand the impact of the pandemic on their businesses.
Hospitality businesses have been able to benefit from Government support, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Government-backed loans, Local Restrictions Support Grants, additional funding provided to Local Authorities to support businesses and the Cultural Relief Fund.
On 5 January, when the new National Lockdown began, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a one-off top up grant for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property to help businesses through to the spring. A £594 million discretionary fund has also been made available to support other impacted businesses.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many post offices there were in the Yorkshire and the Humber region in (a) 2010 and (b) 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
The number of post offices that were in the Yorkshire and the Humber region was 1005 in March 2010 and 948 in March 2020.