Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
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 assessment of the potential merits of instructing the Energy Efficiency Taskforce to consider the redeployment of social housing decarbonisation funding.
Answered by Graham Stuart
More details on the scope and membership of the Taskforce will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in what way he expects the Energy Efficiency Taskforce to gather the opinions of local authorities; and whether local authority representatives will form part of that Taskforce.
Answered by Graham Stuart
More details on the scope and membership of the Taskforce will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether any (a) oil and (b) oil-based products that originated from Russia have been imported into the UK since the implementation of sanctions.
Answered by Graham Stuart
On 8 March 2022, the UK announced it would ban the import of all Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022. Legislation was passed on 3 November to implement the ban which will come into effect from 5 December. A parallel Maritime Services ban will apply from 5 December for crude oil and 5 February for refined oil products. Since the announcement of the ban, the industry has been self-sanctioning to move away from Russian oil and products.
Provisional data shows in the three months to September 2022, the UK imported 0.1 per cent of gross oil supply (production + imports) from Russia, down from 4.4% in the same period in 2021. Of these imports all were products, the UK did not import crude oil from Russia in the three months to September 2022.
Source: Energy Trends.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department will publish revised guidance on tidal energy as part of the energy National Policy Statement.
Answered by Graham Stuart
BEIS has been analysing the responses received as part of the public consultation on the draft revised energy National Policy Statements and aims to issue the response shortly. This will take into account these responses and any resolutions or recommendations from the Parliamentary scrutiny process.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
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 protect Marine Protected Areas during new oil and gas licensing rounds.
Answered by Graham Stuart
I refer my hon. Friend to the answers I gave the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion on 8th November 2022 to Questions 74614, 74616 and 74617.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department provides for energy supply in communal areas in (a) apartment buildings and (b) other shared accommodation.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Intermediaries supplying energy via a domestic contract benefit from the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) and the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS). Non-domestic contracts will benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS).
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
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 the Rosebank oil field development in the North Sea does not damage marine habitats.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The environmental impacts of offshore oil and gas developments, including the likely impacts on marine habitats, are subject to rigorous regulatory assessment by the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED). This includes consultation with government nature protection bodies and with the public.
If required, OPRED can put in place conditions to protect marine habitats from significant impacts which may occur during preparatory work, installation and operation of the facilities.
The Environmental Statement for the Rosebank Field Development is currently being reviewed by OPRED and a decision will be published in due course.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
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 potential impact of the new oil and gas licensing round on the UK's ability to protect 30 per cent of its oceans by 2030.
Answered by Graham Stuart
I refer my hon. Friend to the answers I gave the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion on 8th November 2022 to Questions 74614, 74616 and 74617.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the private sector research and development opportunities available for research in the Higher Education sector.
Answered by George Freeman
Data on university income from private business is collected annually by the Higher Education Statistics Authority. The latest data from the 2020/21 academic year shows that higher education institutions received £5.1 billion from the main sources of private sector funding. This includes £1.4 billion for contract research and £1.8 billion for collaborative research.
In addition, there are several government programmes that require or encourage collaboration between higher education and the private sector, such as the UK Research Partnerships Investment Fund, which has provided £900m to higher education institutions that has been matched by twice as much private investment.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's priorities are for pursuing post-Brexit opportunities.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government is committed to taking full advantage of the benefits of Brexit, including through the Retained EU Law (REUL) (Revocation and Reform) Bill, which had Second Reading on 25 October. The Bill will end the special legal status of all REUL and make it more easy to amend, repeal or replace. This will allow us to create a more agile and innovative regulatory environment, and reform our laws and regulations to best fit the needs of the UK and boost economic growth.