Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Coventry 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 the audit industry supports the assessment and disclosure of climate-related financial risk.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Companies Act 2006 requires companies to include a description of their principal risks, and how they are managed, within their strategic reports. Such risks may include those related to climate change.
The Government has endorsed the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The TCFD encourages companies to consider climate-related issues in relation to their business and recommends that climate-related financial risks are disclosed within annual reports. The Task Force has also made recommendations to promote more informed understanding of such issues and opportunities by both the producers of such disclosures and by the recipients of the reports, namely investors.
Under the existing regulatory framework, the auditor must state whether the information given in the strategic report and the directors’ report is consistent with the financial statements; whether such reports have been prepared in accordance with the law; and whether, in the light of the knowledge and understanding of the company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, any material misstatements in the reports have been identified.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Coventry 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 in-flight files of EU legislation exist that affect the policy areas managed by his Department; and which in-flight files of EU legislation his Department intends to implement in UK law.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
As of 9 November, the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) led on 46 EU legislative files that remain under negotiation.
It is not possible to say which files will be implemented in UK law; this will depend on a range of factors including the nature of any future EU-UK relationship and the details of the final agreed texts of individual files including any transposition deadlines.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Coventry 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 private rented homes require additional energy efficiency installations costing between £2,500 and £3,500 in each (a) region and (b) council authority area.
Answered by Claire Perry
Analysis of private rented housing data indicates that approximately 72,000 properties will receive packages of measures costing between £2,500 and £3,500 under amended Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard Regulations. On average, tenants benefitting from improvements under these regulations will see their energy costs fall by £180 per year.
Due of the comparatively small sample size used to model those private rented sector properties with F and G energy efficiency ratings, we are unable to reliably break the above subset of properties down by region or council authority area.