Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 with his Cabinet colleagues to support businesses with energy prices.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recognises the challenges that businesses are facing and is committed to helping ensure they are able to thrive. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme provides a discount on the wholesale element of gas and electricity bills to ensure that all eligible businesses that receive their energy from licensed suppliers, are protected from high energy costs over the winter period. The new Energy Bill Discount Scheme, will run from April until March 2024, and continue to provide a discount to eligible businesses.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 help support households with their energy bills.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In order to support households with energy bills, the Government has set up the Energy Bills Support Scheme which is delivering a £400 non-repayable government discount this winter.
The Energy Price Guarantee reduces the amount a household is charged per unit of gas or electricity, to an annual equivalent of around £2,500 for a typical household in Great Britain from 1 October 2022 to end of March 2023.
For households that use alternative fuels such as biomass, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or heating oil, the Alternative Fuel Payment scheme will deliver an additional £200.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 his Department has taken to help support off-grid consumers with their energy bills.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Alternative Fuel Payment scheme will provide a one-off payment to UK (GB and NI) households that use alternative fuels for heating, such as heating oil or LPG, instead of mains gas. This will ensure that those who do not benefit from the Energy Price Guarantee for fuel they use to heat their homes receive support for the cost of the fuel they do use.
£400 of EBSS Alternative Funding will be made available for those who do not have a direct contract with an electricity supplier or an electricity meter and will therefore not receive the Energy Bills Support Scheme directly.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 ensure that support for energy bills is available to rural households that are not on the gas and electricity grids.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Alternative Fuel Payment scheme will provide a one-off payment to UK (GB and NI) households that use alternative fuels for heating, such as heating oil or LPG, instead of mains gas. This will ensure that those who do not benefit from the Energy Price Guarantee for fuel they use to heat their homes receive support for the cost of the fuel they do use.
£400 of EBSS Alternative Funding will be made available for those who do not have a direct contract with an electricity supplier or an electricity meter and will therefore not receive the Energy Bills Support Scheme directly.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
If he will make an assessment of the potential contribution of onshore UK critical mineral supply chains to the levelling up agenda.
Answered by George Freeman
A secure supply of critical minerals is fundamental to supporting almost all other UK manufacturing industries – such as automotive, aerospace, defence, energy and electronics. Without a reliable supply of critical minerals, the health of these industries, and the communities in which they operate would be adversely affected.
The Critical Minerals Strategy sets out the Government’s ambition to increase domestic capabilities in critical mineral supply chain, which has the potential to create well-paid jobs and boost productivity, particularly in areas such as Cornwall, Merseyside and Yorkshire.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what diplomatic steps the Government is taking to support the development of covid-19 vaccines (a) in the UK and (b) throughout the world.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has worked at pace to find safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 as quickly as possible. We have supported the development of COVID-19 vaccines in the UK through a number of investments, including:
The Government has also funded the NHS Registry, developed by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), to enable individuals to sign up to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trials. This has made the UK well-suited to facilitate clinical trials that are essential to the development of any vaccine. As of 9 June 2021, over 502,000 people had signed up.
The UK has also joined COVAX, an international initiative to support the discovery, manufacture, and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the world. This includes contributing £548 million, as one of the largest donors, to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, which has already helped over 72 low- and middle-income countries to receive vaccine doses.
In addition to this, the Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale-up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to this pandemic, as well as any future pandemics.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to replace the non-domestic renewal heat incentive scheme; and when he will publish those plans.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
From April to July 2020, the Department consulted on “Future support for low carbon heat”, setting out proposals for future schemes to follow the closure of the Renewable Heat Incentive. A government response to this consultation will be published later this year.
The Government is also planning to publish a Heat and Buildings Strategy in due course, which will set out the immediate actions we will take to reduce emissions from buildings.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 of geothermal energy to contribute to the UK's net zero target.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The most promising use of geothermal energy in the UK is for low temperature applications such as district heating schemes. We have been providing support to the deployment of district heat networks from geothermal through the Heat Networks Delivery Unit (HNDU) and the Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP).
The £270m Green Network Heat fund is still at an early stage of scheme development, and we will be issuing a consultation response in due course.
The Government has also funded the £31m UK Geoenergy Observatories which will provide a world class infrastructure for a wide range of geoenergy related research including geothermal.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 (a) enforce and (b) ensure businesses' compliance with the requirements of Regulation 28 of The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015.
Answered by Paul Scully
If Companies House are made aware of a company whose trading disclosures do not comply with Companies Act requirements, they will contact the company concerned to clarify the position. If necessary, they will advise the company that it is committing an offence and request that it updates any non-compliant information.
The primary aim is to seek compliance. If the company refuses to comply, Companies House will consider taking prosecution action as a last resort.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress is being made on the development of a covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is leading efforts to find and manufacture a vaccine, working with industry and experts, both here in the UK and internationally to ensure we are in the best position possible to support the discovery, manufacture and mass-deployment of a successful vaccine should a candidate prove successful. A number of agreements to procure millions of doses of vaccines have been made, ensuring the greatest possible chance of securing access to a safe and effective vaccine. The UK has now secured access to 6 different candidates, across 4 different vaccines types, including University of Oxford’s vaccine being developed with AstraZeneca and agreements with BioNTech/Pfizer alliance, Valneva, Novavax, Janssen and GSK/Sanofi Pasteur.