Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding was allocated to organisations in the West Midlands as part of his Department's Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The total value of grants awarded to date through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to public sector organisations in the West Midlands is £227,051,339.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 ensure that homeowners make informed choices on the energy efficiency of their homes.
Answered by Graham Stuart
In July the Government launched the online service 'Find ways to save energy in your home'. This can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/improve-energy-efficiency.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 increase funding to (a) UK Research and Innovation and (b) mathematical sciences.
Answered by George Freeman
UKRI’s council level allocations were published on 30 May. The total UKRI allocation is £25.1 billion for 2022-25 and will reach its highest ever level in 2024-25 (over £8.8 billion).
This multi-year settlement provides UKRI and its constituent research councils with stability and certainty to deliver world class research and innovation across their portfolio, including in mathematical sciences.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will publish the data it holds on the number of households in the Solihull Constituency that received the Warm Homes Discount scheme in 2021.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Energy suppliers are responsible for providing rebates to eligible households and are only required to report on the number of rebates provided in England, Scotland and Wales. The Government does not hold data on the number of rebate recipients by constituency.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 data on the number of RP06 forms submitted to Companies House in 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
Companies House holds the data on the number of RP606 forms submitted to them. 2960 RP06 forms were submitted during the 2021 calendar year.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the timeframe is for bringing forward the Employment Bill, proposed in the Queen's Speech of December 2019.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is committed to building a high skilled, high productivity, high wage economy that delivers on our ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to work and grow a business. We will bring forward reforms to our employment framework when Parliamentary time allows. In the meantime, we will continue to take necessary action to support businesses and protect jobs.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on providing support to SMEs to help them transition to net-zero.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer and I have agreed to give the British Business Bank a new mission to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by supporting access to finance for smaller businesses. The Bank has already made good progress in this area. Between 2014 and the third quarter of 2020 a total of £160m has been invested into clean technology businesses by equity funds backed by the British Business Bank.
Ahead of COP26, BEIS has launched the Together for Our Planet Business Climate Leaders’ campaign, which has encouraged over 1,900 small and micro businesses across the UK to join the Race to Zero by making the SME Climate Commitment.
Small and medium-sized businesses have a vital role in the transition to Net Zero. Smaller businesses make up 99% of the UK’s 5.87 million enterprises and produce 50% of all UK business emissions. Small businesses will drive this transition through developing new technologies and ways of working.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 identify failures in the insolvency profession; and whether he plans to introduce a single regulator and ombudsman to oversee that sector.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is currently reviewing the arrangements for regulation of the insolvency profession and will shortly publish proposals for consultation.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 merits of issuing a public policy exclusion order to regional mutual banks to allow them to scale up their business.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government welcomes the efforts to establish regional mutual banks in the UK. The Government is also committed to seeing a highly competitive banking sector, working in the interests of all consumers and businesses across the country, and recognises the potential of regional mutual banks in achieving this goal. HM Treasury officials have been engaging with prospective mutual banks over challenges to their establishment.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 ensure that copyright owners take adequate account of fair dealing before issuing take-down notices on social and digital media platforms.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Fair dealing exceptions have an important role to play in a balanced copyright framework. The Government is aware that many of the online services operating notice and take down also provide a mechanism for users to have the content reinstated if it has been mistakenly identified as infringing copyright; for example, where a user has uploaded content under a copyright exception.
The Government believes that effective notice and takedown processes are an important mechanism for protecting content online and has facilitated a number of initiatives with intellectual property rights holders and online providers to ensure that such mechanisms work well. The Government does not however intervene in specific instances of take down of content, which are private to the parties involved.