Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
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 his Department’s press release of 3 July 2020 announcing its investment in OneWeb, what assessment his Department has made of the potential for OneWeb to support the UK’s national security interests.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The UK will continue to rely on the SKYNET programme for its defence and security global communications requirements.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many OneWeb satellites his Department estimates will be produced for orbit in the next 12 months.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
Details of satellite production and future launches are a commercial matter for the company.
OneWeb plans to complete UK coverage and commence commercial services by the end of 2021, with global coverage planned for 2022.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will publish the governance structures for OneWeb with reference to the (a) role of Bharti Global Ltd and (b) arrangements for oversight by Ministers of his Department.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Government recognises the importance of transparency in relation to its shareholding in OneWeb. Government involvement is outlined in the terms of the company’s articles of association, which are publicly available at Companies House.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will publish the primary objectives of OneWeb with reference to its provision of (a) internet communications, (b) surveillance and (c) GPS.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Government and other shareholders are supporting OneWeb in the development of their long-term strategic plan.
OneWeb’s global Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation will provide high speed, low-latency global internet coverage.
OneWeb’s current generation of satellites does not offer any surveillance applications. However, moving forward, OneWeb’s capabilities in potential future-generation satellites, alongside those of the wider sector, will be reviewed in the context of the UK’s evolving Space requirements.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the outcome was of his Department's recent assessment of the value of its investment in the OneWeb company.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
Investing in OneWeb provides the UK with a range of strategic and commercial opportunities, including the potential to create jobs, expand the UK's supply chain and boost the manufacturing sector.
OneWeb will contribute to the UK's ambition to become a world leader in the Space sector.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential effect of ending the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme on levels of employment.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has safeguarded 9.6m jobs to date and will be reviewed in January. The Government is also supporting the recovery of the economy by focussing on job creation initiatives like Kickstart and Restart. The public health situation continues to evolve and we will continue to take the necessary steps to protect jobs and businesses.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2020 to Question 5366, when his Department plans to update its publications entitled (a) Steel procurement pipeline and (b) Steel Public Procurement: Compliance with the steel procurement guidance.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The data used for the publication of the steel procurement pipeline, and the compliance data on the steel procurement guidance, has been shared with UK Steel and the steel producers. These stakeholders have helped to quality assure the information prior to publication, which we intend to publish soon.
Data on steel procurement in the UK, including the origin, as well as information on infrastructure projects with significant steel content, is published annually at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/steel-public-procurement.
The next iteration of this data will be published in due course.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that employers provide sufficient levels of personal protective equipment to their employees once they return to work after the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Paul Scully
We have provided guidance on how to work safely in a number of different working environments, such as offices, factories, and working outdoors – so that employers can use the guidance which is most relevant to them. The safety of all workers is at the forefront of this guidance. Our approach is clinically led, based on the expert advice of the UK’s Chief Medical Officer for England, the NHS and Public Health England. We are led by the evolving science in this work and as the scientific and medical advice changes, the guidance will be updated to reflect this.
Where workers already wear PPE for protection against non-COVID risks, such as dust, they should continue to wear this PPE.
The best way to manage the risk of COVID-19 is to implement robust social distancing measures and other physical controls. Outside of a clinical setting there is very little evidence to support the use of PPE and we would anticipate that an employer’s risk assessment and risk management decisions would reflect that the role of PPE in providing additional protection is extremely limited.
We recommend that PPE is not used in working environments where it would not normally be required. Good hygiene and minimising social contact remain the most effective way of managing the risks of COVID-19. However, if an employers’ risk assessment does show that PPE is required, employers must provide this PPE free of charge to employees.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if the Government will require employers to publish comprehensive covid-19 risk assessments in advance of the return of their employees to work after the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has published guidance developed with industry experts, unions, business organisations, local Government, and other stakeholders, requiring employers to carry out risk assessments as part of normal health and safety practice in order to get employees back to work safely.
Employers need to develop their risk assessments with input from unions and workers, as they do under normal circumstance. All businesses should share the results of their risk assessment with their employees. We are asking employers to publish the results of these assessments whenever possible.
The Government expects larger organisations – those with over 50 workers – to publish the results of their risk assessments. We think businesses will want to do this to help build the confidence of their workers and their customers. In order to help with this, the Government has provided a new notice which employers can display on their website to show they have followed the guidance on managing the risks of COVID-19.