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 his Department has made of the potential effect of the introduction of an international copyright regime on UK (a) authors and (b) publishers.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is currently considering all options for the UK’s future exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime. The Government is aware of many of the arguments in favour and against an international exhaustion of IP rights regime, but will be consulting on the potential impact of different exhaustion of rights regimes in early 2021. Information from that consultation will be taken into account before the Government makes any decisions on a future regime.
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 he will hold discussions with the Intellectual Property Office on the potential role of a national copyright exhaustion regime in supporting the UK’s (a) publishing industry and (b) other creative exports.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO), an executive agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, is already considering the UK’s future exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime. The Department will work with officials at the IPO and stakeholders to assess the potential impact of the different exhaustion of IP rights regimes that could be implemented in the UK. This will include consideration of impacts on the publishing industry and exports of goods in the secondary market, including goods from the creative industries.
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 has taken to encourage private investment in the renewable energy sector.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department has a number of policies to encourage private investment in the renewable energy sector.
For example, the Contracts for Difference Scheme is the main mechanism of support for new renewable electricity deployment. The scheme provides long-term price stabilisation for new projects, making projects that have high upfront costs attractive to investors, while protecting consumers when electricity prices are high. Our support through the Contracts for Difference and other legacy schemes has helped to successfully unlock £94bn[1] of private sector investment in clean energy since 2010 and has driven down the cost of renewables. For example, offshore wind costs have fallen 65% since 2015.
In March 2019, the Government published the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, which aims to work in partnership with the industry to boost the UK supply chain, develop new technologies and increase the UK’s export potential. As part of this Sector Deal, an Offshore Wind Growth Partnership was launched in June 2019, in which the private sector committed £100m towards a 10-year programme to support the growth of UK businesses looking to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the growth in offshore wind around the world.
[1] https://about.bnef.com/clean-energy-investment/
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 officials in his Department have had with officials in HM Treasury on tax reliefs for electric vehicles.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Officials in the Department have regular discussions with HM Treasury officials on a range of subjects, including incentivising the uptake of ultra low emission vehicles and associated infrastructure.
The Government is supporting the early market for electric vehicles with demand incentives. Government grants for plug in vehicles continue to be available to help reduce the up-front purchase price of electric vehicles. Drivers of ultra-low emission vehicles also receive other benefits, including lower tax rates, and grants towards the installation of chargepoints. For instance, to accelerate the shift to zero emission cars, all zero emission models will pay no company car tax in 2020-21, 1% in 2021-22 before returning to the planned 2% rate in 2022-23 – a significant tax saving for employees and employers. A number of local authorities also provide additional incentives such as free parking or exemption from the congestion charge. We stated in our Road to Zero strategy that consumer incentives in some form will continue to play a role beyond 2020.
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, with reference to the 2018 Automotive Sector Deal, what steps her Department is taking to (a) allocate and (b) facilitate funding for research and infrastructure for (i) connected and (ii) autonomous vehicles; and if will she make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has a long-standing programme of support to maintain the competitiveness of the UK automotive sector. Through the Automotive Sector Deal, we are working with industry to put the UK at the forefront of the next generation of new automotive vehicles and technologies. For example, together we have committed £1 billion through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) until 2023.
As part of the Sector Deal, we are also investing over £200 million, match-funded by industry, to accelerate the safe development and deployment of connected and automated vehicle technologies and anchor them in the UK. This funding supports more than 90 collaborative research and development projects involving over 200 organisations. It is also creating a world-leading ecosystem of controlled and real-world test sites stretching from the West Midlands to London, coordinated by Zenzic.
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 progress her Department has made on the development of test tracks for (a) connected and (b) autonomous vehicles to ensure that the UK is a global leader in that sector; and if will she make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has a long-standing programme of support to maintain the competitiveness of the UK automotive sector. Through the Automotive Sector Deal, we are working with industry to put the UK at the forefront of the next generation of new automotive vehicles and technologies. For example, together we have committed £1 billion through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) until 2023.
As part of the Sector Deal, we are also investing over £200 million, match-funded by industry, to accelerate the safe development and deployment of connected and automated vehicle technologies and anchor them in the UK. This funding supports more than 90 collaborative research and development projects involving over 200 organisations. It is also creating a world-leading ecosystem of controlled and real-world test sites stretching from the West Midlands to London, coordinated by Zenzic.
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 steps he has taken to help businesses to create more highly skilled jobs in (a) Solihull and (b) the West Midlands.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Industrial Strategy is our long-term plan to boost productivity by backing businesses to create high-quality, well paid jobs throughout the United Kingdom, with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure. The Government is supporting businesses in Solihull and the West Midlands through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which brings together world-class UK research with business investment to develop the technologies that will transform existing industries and create entirely new ones. We have to date allocated £298,603,876 of ISCF grant funding to projects in the West Midlands and £14,409 for Solihull.
Government has been working alongside the West Midlands Combined Authority, Local Enterprise Partnerships and local businesses to develop the West Midlands Local Industrial Strategy. This sets out an ambitious long term vision for the region to increase its productivity, build on its sectors at the heart of the region like automotive and life sciences, and create new opportunities for people and businesses in emerging sectors and industries.
The government have also helped businesses through the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme. Since its launch in 2012, the programme has delivered 58 loans, totalling £489,951 for businesses in Solihull.
We have also established a network of Catapult Centres to commercialise new and emerging technologies. In the West Midlands, this includes the High Value Manufacturing Catapult which has two centres in Coventry, and the Energy Systems Catapult in Birmingham. These catapults will help businesses in these areas, and across the UK, to do cutting-edge R&D and train apprentices and doctoral students in high-demand technical skills.
Further examples of action across Greater Birmingham and Solihull:
Further examples of action across the West Midlands:
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 has taken to promote youth entrepreneurship; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
As part of our Industrial Strategy, we have taken steps to encourage young people to start a business and turn their ambitions into a reality.
On 6 March, BEIS launched an independent review into Young Entrepreneurship to be led by the Prince’s Trust, that seeks to better understand young entrepreneurs, the specific barriers and opportunities they face, and what more can be done by the private, public and third sector to support them to start and grow a business.
The Review will focus on people aged 18-30 in England, who have the potential to start a business, are in the process of starting a business, or are already running their own business.
Since 2012, the British Business Bank has also provided over £59 million in Start Up Loans to 18-24-year olds.
Additionally, the Young Innovators Programme, supported by Innovate UK and the Prince’s Trust, enables young entrepreneurs to access coaching, mentoring and £5,000 funding.
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 progress he has made to simplify the number of tariffs offered by energy companies.
Answered by Margot James
The Competition and Markets Authority recommended in their 2016 report that Ofgem remove the simpler tariff rules. These rules banned suppliers from offering complex tariffs and capped the number of tariffs which they could offer. Ofgem have now introduced new rules governing the information about tariffs which suppliers can give to their domestic customers in their sales and marketing activities, including a requirement that they should be easily comparable. Government supports this approach.
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 has carried out an assessment of changes in investor confidence caused by Ofgem's proposal retrospectively to remove long-standing triad incentive payments from committed 2014 and 2015 capacity market contracts.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The review of embedded benefits related to Transmission Network Use of System demand charges is a matter for Ofgem, as the independent regulator. Ofgem is consulting on a draft impact assessment which considers various impacts of its proposed reforms.
The Department has received a number of stakeholder representations regarding the review of embedded benefits. These suggest that many embedded generation projects with capacity agreements from the 2014 and 2015 auctions will be largely unaffected; but some may be affected if they have assumed current levels of embedded benefit over a longer term.
The Capacity Market exists to provide back-up supply when needed.
Holders of capacity agreements are of course subject to strict termination fees where they are unable to fulfil their agreements. The Government remains confident that these obligations, alongside the future one-year-ahead auction, can be used effectively to mitigate any risks to capacity that arise between the four-year-ahead auction and the delivery year, so that security of supply is maintained.