Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
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 effectiveness of the Rolls Royce small modular reactor; and whether he has plans to use them for energy generation.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has awarded up to £210m to support development of the Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design. The Rolls-Royce SMR entered the Generic Design Assessment process in April becoming the first SMR to begin UK nuclear regulation.
As outlined in the British Energy Security Strategy, the Government intends to initiate a selection process in 2023 for the next nuclear projects, including SMRs.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the level of support provided by the energy bill relief scheme will be kept under review by his Department during the initial six month period of that scheme; and whether the Government plans to continue support (a) beyond the initial six month period and (b) until energy price volatility has decreased.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government announced its intention to introduce an Energy Bill Relief Scheme, for six months, from 1 October 2022. Alongside that announcement, the Government committed to carrying out a review of the operation of the scheme in order to inform decisions on future support after March 2023.
The review will focus on identifying the non-domestic customers most at risk and how the Government will continue assisting them with energy costs from April 2023.
The Government will publish finding of the review by January 2023.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether (a) district councils and (b) other local authorities will be eligible for the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
District councils and other local authorities on eligible contracts will be covered by the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This scheme will provide a price reduction to ensure all businesses and other non-domestic energy users are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions officials in his Department have had with their counterparts in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on providing the Digital Markets Unit with the relevant statutory footing it needs to give it powers to enforce the new pro-competition regime for digital markets.
Answered by Paul Scully
Officials in the Department are working closely with DCMS on this policy issue. The departments published a joint consultation on the policy design in August last year, will be publishing a joint response to that consultation in the coming weeks, and are working together to deliver the necessary legislation when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
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 conduct a review into the operation of the coal miners' pension scheme and the transfer of surpluses from the pension fund to HM Treasury.
Answered by Greg Hands
The BEIS Select Committee carried out an inquiry into the Mineworkers Pension Scheme last year. The Government was unable to accept the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee’s report and continues to believe that the existing arrangements work well for all parties. Following the publication of the report, the former Minister of State for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change, the Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan, met the MPS Trustees on 21 June to discuss the report and options for the way forward. She asked the Trustees to consider whether they would be willing to include the Government Guarantee in any future discussions around surplus sharing and the Investment Reserve. The Government awaits their response.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans there are to manipulate the covid-19 vaccine to sensitise it to the omicron and other variants; and when he estimates such vaccines might become available.
Answered by George Freeman
Recent analysis supports our understanding that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which are currently being deployed in the UK, appear to work well against the current dominant variants of COVID-19 after a booster-dose. Continuing to administer these vaccines at scale remains essential in our path out of the pandemic.
The Government continues to assess our existing vaccine portfolio against current variants, working closely with vaccine manufacturers and the UK Health Security Agency to understand the efficacy of our current vaccine portfolio against new variants.