Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the value is of covid-19 related loans (a) from the public purse and (b) via the British Business Bank to duty holders in the UK sector of the offshore oil and gas industry, broken down by support for (a) revenue streams, (b) capital investment and (c) employment costs.
Answered by Paul Scully
The three Coronavirus Business Interruption loan schemes are administered by the British Business Bank and delivered by accredited lenders. The Loans are designed to ensure that businesses have access to capital to help them through this difficult time, with the temporary cashflow impacts of Covid-19.
The British Business bank does not keep data on (a) revenue streams, (b) capital investment and (c) employment costs.
The British Business Bank publishes lending figures under the BBLs and CBILS schemes, including by sector as follows:
BBLS by Sector | Number of BBLS facilities | Volume of Finance under BBLS (£) | % of BBLS facilities | % of business population |
Mining and Quarrying; Electricity, Gas and Air Conditioning Supply; Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Activities | 9518 | 303,000,000 | 1% | 0.6% |
CBILS by Sector | Number of facilities | Volume of Finance under CBILS (£) | % of CBILS facilities | % of business population |
Mining and Quarrying; Electricity, Gas and Air Conditioning Supply; Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Activities | 709 | 196,000,000 | 1% | 0.6% |
The Covid Corporate Financing Facility provides debt finance to support fundamentally strong companies through the market disruption brought about through Covid-19. The scheme is funded by central bank reserves – in line with other Bank of England market operations - and is indemnified by HM Treasury. Details of outstanding lending through the scheme are published weekly on the Bank of England website.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to allow small independent retailers to sell homeware and clothes during future covid-19 lockdown periods, in line with the rules for supermarkets.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government recognises this will be a challenging time for any business which has been asked to close.
All shops can continue to offer home delivery to customers and click and collect services during the current restrictions.
The current restrictions will expire on 2 December, and our intention is to return to?a system of?local and regional restrictions. We will set out what this means for retailers and other businesses as soon as possible.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 he has had with (a) trades unions and (b) the oil and gas authority on employment standards in the offshore decommissioning industry.
Answered by Claire Perry
The majority of companies and people undertaking work on offshore decommissioning are those who also work in the new build and ongoing production phases of the oil and gas industry and as such there are well established employment standards and conditions.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 UKCS Decommissioning 2018 Cost Estimate Report by the Oil and Gas Authority, what assessment he has made of trends in the cost of labour associated with decommissioning projects.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department does not have details on the cost of labour associated with decommissioning projects nor trends in the cost. However, the recent report by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) indicates that operators are making progress to reduce costs, with some reporting significant cost reductions in platform running costs, platform well plugging and abandonment costs and removal costs. The OGA is working with industry to support further cost reductions to achieve delivery of the £39bn target cost for decommissioning and is developing cost benchmarks that will enable trend analysis of decommissioning costs over time.
https://www.ogauthority.co.uk/media/4925/decommissioning-cost-report-2018.pdf