Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for (a) the Home Department and (b) Transport on the implications for their policies of demand for (i) construction and (ii) maintenance crew in the offshore wind labour market.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
My Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has not had any discussions with either of my Rt Hon. Friends on this particular topic.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has held with the Home Office on the offshore wind labour market following the introduction of the Offshore Wind Workers Immigration Rules concession 2017.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has not had any discussions with the Home Office on this topic.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he last held discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the potential effect of the Offshore Wind Workers Immigration Rules Concession 2017 on (a) jobs and (b) skills in the offshore wind industry.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has not had any discussions with my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the issues set out since taking up his position at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
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 make an estimate of the number of foreign nationals that were employed on offshore wind (a) construction and (b) maintenance projects in UK waters in each year since 2017.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department does not record this data. The Office for National Statistics publishes annually the number of jobs in offshore wind, with the last data relating to 2020[1].
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on the effect of the Offshore wind workers Immigration Rules concession 2017 on the domestic labour market.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State regularly meets with the Home Secretary to discuss a wide range of issues.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many UK-owned offshore wind farm sites under construction are within the UK territorial water limit.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There is currently one offshore windfarm under construction within the UK territorial water limit (between 3 and 12 nautical miles), Neart Na Gaoithe, being built by EDF Renewables off the Fife coast in Scotland. The other windfarms under construction are being built in UK waters further from shore.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the availability of skilled workers for employment on vessels engaged in construction and maintenance projects in the offshore wind sector.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In March 2020 the “Offshore wind Sector Deal - one year on” policy paper was published on the GOV.UK website, which includes a section on developing skills and improving diversity in the sector. It noted that the sector has introduced a workforce and skills model developed by the National Skills Academy for Rail to track and report on workforce data, and that data was being gathered from the operators, developers and original equipment manufacturers, with plans to gather data from regional offshore wind clusters over the longer term.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
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 ensure that vessels contracted to work on offshore wind farm developments in UK waters are based in UK ports for the duration of such contracts.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government is committed to ensuring the economic benefits to the UK arising from offshore wind deployment is maximised.
Developers of offshore wind farms and offshore wind turbine manufacturers are responsible for contracting for vessels to build offshore wind farms. This is a commercial matter for the companies concerned.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many successful applications have been made to the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme from (a) medium-sized and (b) large business in the (i) transport and (ii) offshore energy sectors to date; and what the value is of those applications.
Answered by Paul Scully
As of 7 June, 244 loans have been issued under the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), with a total value of £1.57 billion.
Issuing new loans is the priority for lenders and the Government. We are working with the British Business Bank, HM Treasury and the lenders on providing regular and transparent data publication going forward.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
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 ensure that major employers of UK seafarers do not make staff redundant due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is designed to help employers whose operations have been severely affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) to retain their employees and protect the UK economy. The scheme will help businesses to retain staff and reduce the need for redundancies.
Any entity with a UK payroll can apply to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as long as they have: (1) created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before 19 March 2020, (2) enrolled for PAYE online and (3) a UK bank account. This applies to any employer, including those employing seafarers.
My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has now announced that the scheme will be extended, in full, until the end of July. After July, we will introduce more flexibility to the furlough scheme so that we move out of it in a measured way that protects people’s incomes and helps support furloughed employees as they return to work. This will run for three months from August through to the end of October.