Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, who is responsible for digitisation in her Department; and what mechanisms the person with responsibility for digitisation uses to champion digitisation.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and its partner organisations have digital strategies exploring opportunities to transform services using modern technologies and aligning with the objectives in the Single Departmental Plan and the Secretary of State’s agreed priorities.
We make use of agile project management methodologies and work closely with our colleagues at the Government Digital Service to ensure we are using best practice service design techniques, creating the digital services that citizens and businesses need the most.
The core Department takes a blended approach to resourcing digital projects with work performed by in-house teams, externally-sourced teams or a combination of these depending on the skills required for a given project.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many meetings she had with her Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser from 1 June 2019 to 31 August 2019.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Since taking office, the Secretary of State had meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) in her department twice in this period.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many meetings he held with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State met with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser on one occasion between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 carry forward part of the second carbon budget in to the third budgetary period.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The UK has a world-leading record in tackling climate change. We are rightly proud of our performance against our carbon targets, having overperformed for the second time, leading us to cut our emissions faster than any G7 country. We remain firmly committed to tackling the threat of climate change and to meeting our future carbon targets through the ambitious plans and policies set out in the Clean Growth Strategy.
The decision to reserve part of the second carbon budget is a technical one which does not impact the Government’s commitment to taking strong domestic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
The Government has deposited letters in the Libraries of the House confirming its decision.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many meetings he had with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Chief Scientific Adviser had no meetings with my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State between 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019. The Chief Scientific Adviser met with the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation on 29 January 2019.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal principal investigators in receipt of European Research Council funding who are based outside the UK will qualify for the Government's Horizon 2020 underwrite if they move their research base to the UK (a) before or (b) after the date of EU exit.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
In the event of a no deal, the Government underwrite will cover the payment of awards to UK beneficiaries for all successful bids to Horizon 2020, including the European Research Council, for the lifetime of projects.
This includes Horizon 2020 grants that have been transferred to the UK before the date of EU exit. We will seek to publish further guidance in due course on how the underwrite will apply to Horizon 2020 grantees based outside of the UK that are planning to move their research base to the UK.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many meetings he had with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 September and 30 November 2018.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy met with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser on 6 occasions between 1 September and 30 November 2018.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 potential effect of European Commission proposals to change EU summertime arrangements on Government policy, in the event that the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Commission’s proposal does not present a strong evidence base that shows why the change is necessary nor that demonstrates the benefits to Member States, their citizens, or the EU.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 April 2018 to Question 136508, what proportion of the Medical Research Council's budget was spent on mental health research in 2017-18.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Information on the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) spend on research relating directly to mental health and total research spend for 2017/18 will be made available once the MRC’s Annual Report and Accounts are laid before Parliament. We would expect the data to be available by the end of the Summer.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many meetings he had with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 January and 31 March 2018.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Between 1 January 2018 and 31st March 2018, my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) met with the Chief Scientific Adviser for BEIS five times in person.