Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the energy price cap on household default tariffs on (a) the average annual energy bill for households and (b) trends in the level of profits of energy companies.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Decisions on the price cap are for independent regulator Ofgem. Average energy bills are published online at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65c65524cc433b0011a90ba8/table_221.xlsx

A break down of the components of the price cap, including the earnings allowance, may be found at www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-price-cap.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost to the public purse was of the Household Support Fund since 2021; and what the total distribution of the fund per constituency over the same period.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

A total of £3bn including Barnett impact has been announced since October 2021 to enable the Household Support Fund to run in England. This includes over £2.5 bn allocated to Local Authorities in England. It is for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.

Allocations are made at an upper tier Local Authority, level based on population size and levels of deprivation. Allocations by Local Authority for schemes running between October 2021 to March 2024 can be found at the following links:

Management information for 6^th October 2021 to 31^st March 2022: Household Support Fund management information: 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Management information for 1^st April 2022 to 30^th September 2022: Household Support Fund 2 management information for 1 April to 30 September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Management information for 1^st October 2022 to 31^st March 2023: Household Support Fund 3 management information for 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Allocations for the period 1^st April 2023 to 31^st March 2024: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund Grant Determination 2023 No 31/6496 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing universal credit by 50% in financial year 2024-25.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

There are no plans to make such an assessment.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2024 to Question 18297 on Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Publications, whether the media team monitors DeclassifiedUK.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The media team monitor outlets for any stories relevant to the brief of the FCDO.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children living in (a) absolute and (b) relative poverty in each year since 2007 in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) the UK.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on the number of Children living in absolute and relative poverty per country in the UK are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication in “table 4.22ts” and “table 4.17ts” (respectively) of “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2022-23-tables” at Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 are for the financial period 2022/23.

The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) Unicef and (b) the United Nations Rapporteur on extreme poverty on initiatives to tackle child poverty.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP officials engage with a wide range of stakeholders including UNICEF.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the total revenue accrued by the Exchequer since the introduction of the two child limit; and how many and what proportion of households are impacted in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) each parliamentary constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The latest statistics, which include breakdowns by Region and Local Authority are published here: Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for amaximum of 2 children, April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The information requested on savings is not available.

Statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children, by Parliamentary Constituencies isn’t currently available.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of children living in (a) absolute and (b) relative poverty per constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on the number of Children living in absolute and relative poverty per constituency are published annually in the “Children in low income families: local area statistics” publication and can be found in tabs “6_Absolute_ParlC” and “5_Relative_ParlC” at Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 are for the financial period 2022/23.

The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the total revenue accrued by the Exchequer since the introduction of the benefit cap; and how many and what proportion of households are impacted in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) each parliamentary constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Since the introduction of the benefit cap in April 2013 to November 2023 (the latest data available) an estimated £2.2 billion has been accrued in Housing Benefit (HB) and Universal Credit (UC) expenditure in Great Britain due to the benefit cap.

Official statistics on the number and proportion of working-age households in receipt of UC and HB who are capped up to November 2023 are available on Stat-Xplore for the requested geographies. Official Statistics on the total number of households in Great Britain on HB or UC for the same geographies are also available on Stat-Xplore up to November 2023. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Benefit cap statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Department for Communities.

Notes:

Source: Benefit Cap Official Statistics up to Nov-23 published in Mar-24

• Total savings are rounded to the nearest £100m
• UC data is only available from October 2016 and for UC Full Service cases only
• Figures do not include households capped in UC Live Service and so this figure will represent a small undercount of the total savings

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of households impacted by the two child limit where one adult is in work in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales, (d) Northern Ireland and (e) each parliamentary constituency.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The requested information is provided in the attached spreadsheet.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) location is of and (b) deployment levels are at each NATO (i) owned and (ii) operated sites.

Answered by James Heappey

The UK is one of the largest contributors of personnel to NATO, underlining our commitment to deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area.

The table below shows the number of UK personnel posted to NATO Peacetime Establishment locations, with personnel in 39 NATO locations in 19 countries all over Europe and the Continental US, and the UK has proportional workforce equity at all locations.

"~" denotes a number less than or equal to 5.

Data have been rounded to 10 and therefore totals may not always equal the sum of the parts.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2024 to Question 17476 on INEOS: Belgium, what exports that funding will support.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

UK Export Finance (UKEF) does not provide direct funding. It issued a guarantee to commercial lenders to help secure new export opportunities for the UK.

UKEF’s support is conditional on the inclusion of UK goods and services in the project and therefore secures export opportunities that might not otherwise have happened, both from businesses directly contracted by INEOS, and others in their supply chains.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Scottish Government has made a formal request for the transfer of the (a) powers and (b) associated budget to provide financial assistance to industry under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 to the Scottish Parliament.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

The power under s.8 so far as it is exercisable in or as regards Scotland, was transferred to Scottish Ministers by section 53 of the Scotland Act 1998, effective from 01/07/99. As such, no formal request for transfer of powers or associated budget is required. The power remains exercisable in Scotland by the UK Secretary of State by virtue of section 56(1)(h) of the 1998 Act; and can also be exercised concurrently by the Secretary of State and Scottish Ministers in relation to financial assistance for shipping services carrying passengers between the Highlands and Islands and Northern Ireland by virtue of S.I. 2002/1630(S. 6).

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much her Department has paid by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 in compensation for indirect costs associated with the (a) UK Emissions Trading System and (b) Carbon Emissions Tax and Carbon Price Support mechanism to (i) British Steel Ltd, (ii) Celsa Manufacturing UK Ltd, (iii) CF Fertilisers UK Ltd, (iv) DS Smith Paper Ltd, (v) Kimberly Clark Ltd, (vi) Outokumpu Stainless Ltd, (vii) Palm Paper Ltd, (viii) Runcorn MCP Ltd, (ix) SABIC UK Petrochemicals Ltd, (x) Tata Steel UK Ltd and (xi) UPM-Kymmene UK Ltd in each year since January 2021.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

The total compensation these companies have received for indirect costs of the (a) UK Emissions Trading System and (b) Carbon Emissions Tax and Carbon Price Support mechanism is as follows: (i) Jan-2021 to March-2022: £165,174,750, (ii) April-2022 to March-2023: £ 114,934,773, (iii) April-2023 to present: £100,952,928.

We are unable to provide the spending for individual companies or under section 8 alone as this would lead to commercially sensitive information being released.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much her Department has paid by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act n982 in compensation for indirect costs of the (a) UK Emissions Trading System and (b) Carbon Emissions Tax and Carbon Price Support mechanism to (i) INEOS Chemical Grangemouth Ltd and (ii) INEOS ChlorVinyls Ltd in each year since January 2021.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

The total compensation these companies have received for indirect costs of the (a) UK Emissions Trading System and (b) Carbon Emissions Tax and Carbon Price Support mechanism is as follows: (i) Jan-2021 to March-2022: £165,174,750, (ii) April-2022 to March-2023: £ 114,934,773, (iii) April-2023 to present: £100,952,928.

We are unable to provide the spending for individual companies or under section 8 alone as this would lead to commercially sensitive information being released.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much her Department has paid by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland in (i) 2018-2019, (ii) 2019-2020, (iii) 2020-2021, (iv) 2021-2022 and (v) 2022-2023 financial year.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

We are unable to provide a breakdown in the manner requested as the data is not held in that format. However, full details of financial assistance provided under the Act are published annually in the Industrial Development Act annual report, copies of which are available in the House libraries.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what (a) criteria and (b) assessment process was used to determine the award of up to £75 million to BMW made under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The award to BMW met the following criteria;

• The award is associated with a strategically important and significant opportunity related to an internationally mobile investment.
• Significant private sector investment will be leveraged.
• A significant number of jobs will be created and/or safeguarded.
• The award meets Government’s value for money requirements.
• The award is deemed legally compliant in accordance with the UK Subsidy Control Act 2022

The assessment process followed HM Treasury Green Book Appraisal Guidance including detailed due diligence conducted by an independent third party. The assessment process also included scrutiny by the Industrial Development Advisory Board.

The award to BMW supports a total investment of £575m by the company and will secure production of new electric models of the Mini at the plant in Oxford.

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