Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
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 merits of enabling the sharing of smart meter data across (a) the energy sector and (b) local and central government.
Answered by Greg Hands
The smart metering Data Access and Privacy Framework permits proportionate access to energy consumption data from smart meters by authorised parties while safeguarding consumers’ privacy.
As the smart meter rollout progresses, the Government will continue working with industry and consumer groups to assess further potential benefits of sharing smart metering data to address policy challenges, subject to appropriate privacy safeguards. The Framework ensures that consumers have control over who can access their energy consumption data and for what purposes, except where this is required for regulated purposes (for example, billing).
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
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 role of smart meter data, beyond influencing the behaviour of energy companies and consumers, in the better regulation of building energy efficiency and reaching net zero.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department recognises the role that smart metering and smart metering data can play in improving building energy efficiency. The BEIS-funded Smart Meter Enabled Thermal Efficiency Rating Innovation Competition developed, demonstrated and assessed new methods for measuring the thermal performance of homes using smart meter and other data.
The Department is continuing to work with industry to assess how smart meter metrics can be used to support the delivery of net zero emissions from heating and powering homes.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
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 set out his plans for supporting the community energy sector in the future.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government recognises that community energy groups have a role to play in the Department’s efforts to decarbonise the economy.
Through the introduction of UK-wide growth funding schemes, such as the Towns Fund, the Government is enabling local areas to tackle net zero goals in ways that best suit their needs. The Government encourages community energy groups to work closely with their local authority to support the development of community energy projects within these schemes.
The Government also plans to reintroduce the Community Energy Contact Group to strengthen engagement with the sector.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
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 25 January 2022 entitled £60 million boost for floating offshore wind, what the local content requirements stipulated by the match-funded projects are.
Answered by Greg Hands
Lead applicants to the Floating Offshore Wind Demonstration Programme needed to be UK-based registered with Companies House. One of the criteria that applications to this innovation and R&D programme were assessed upon was their ability to deliver new and disruptive UK supply chain content. I am pleased that a Doncaster-based ropes manufacturer are partners in two of the successful projects, which serves of a great example of how Yorkshire is benefiting from this Government's programme creating jobs in their constituency
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the context of relocating his Department's policy official roles from Sheffield to London in 2016, what assessment he had made of the implications for (a) staff welfare and (b) value for money of the decision to begin relocating 1,350 BEIS roles out of London.
Answered by George Freeman
I am unable to comment on the decisions taken by the former BIS Department, to close the Sheffield office as part of the BIS 2020 programme and relocate policy roles to London, as this was taken by senior officials from a legacy department. Following the EU Exit referendum in 2016, the consequential machinery of government change that brought about the formation of the new BEIS department, also brought an end to the BIS 2020 programme and since then, BEIS policy roles have not been confined to London only.
BEIS’ contribution to the Government’s Places for Growth agenda was agreed in 2019/20 and forms part of the overall 22,000 roles that are being relocated, of which our commitment is 1350 roles outside London by 2025. Support is in place for line managers and members of staff working in these new locations, including managing cross-site teams. As the organisation becomes less London-centric, we will see a cost saving for the Department.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the total cost was to close the Department's Sheffield Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) office in 2016, including redundancy payments made to civil servants.
Answered by George Freeman
I am unable to comment on the decisions taken by the former BIS Department, to close the Sheffield office as part of the BIS 2020 programme and relocate policy roles to London, as this was taken by senior officials from a legacy department.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what representations he has received from representatives of the life sciences sector on the upcoming Spending Review.
Answered by George Freeman
A range of representations from the Life Sciences sector on their Spending Review priorities were formally submitted to HM Treasury for consideration.
In addition, the Government has continued to engage with the sector throughout the Spending Review process. There was also broad engagement with the sector in co-developing the Life Sciences Vision, published in July 2021, which sets out the Government’s priorities for the sector and informed work on the 2021 Spending Review.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing Innovate UK funding in the upcoming spending review.
Answered by George Freeman
At the Spending Review yesterday, the Government announced a record £39.8 billion for BEIS R&D for 2022/23 to 2024/25.
The Spending Review secures at least £2.5 billion over the SR for core Innovate UK programmes, a 60% rise in funding between 2021/22 and 2024/25, to ensure it can support business in bringing innovations to market and drive economic growth.
The money will boost private sector investment across the whole of the UK, creating the right conditions for all businesses to innovate and giving them the confidence to do so.
This spending review demonstrates the government’s commitment to delivering the Innovation Strategy, with UKRI playing a central role by unleashing business, investing in talent, strengthening our institutions, and developing cutting-edge technology.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
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 making businesses based in (a) non-commercial and (b) non-rateable premises eligible for the covid-19 Restart Grant.
Answered by Paul Scully
The £5 billion Restart Grant Scheme announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors, to support businesses to reopen as Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed.
Strand One of the Restart Grants aims to support non-essential retail with grants of up to £6,000. Strand Two is to support hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses, with grants of up to £18,000.
There are currently no plans to change the eligibility criteria for the Restart Grant scheme.
However, further funding has been made available via the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) to support those businesses that have had their trade adversely affected by the local and national restrictions.
The ARG is a discretionary fund and is also administered by Local Authorities to support businesses in the way they see fit. More than £2 billion of funding has been made available via the ARG, £1.6 billion on Nov 2020 and further £425 million on April 2021.
Businesses should consult their Local Authority to determine whether they might be eligible for ARG support.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
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 merits of introducing a skills framework in consultation with trade unions and professional bodies to develop the skills of construction workers working on green retrofit projects.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) launched a £6.9m skills competition in September to provide training opportunities for energy efficiency and low carbon heating supply chains to deliver works and scale up to meet additional consumer demand. Funding is provided to support training individuals with existing skills and those new to the sector in energy efficiency and clean heat measures, along with support for installation companies to gain the required PAS 2030 standards or Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) accreditation, including possible contribution to certification costs.
A number of training providers have now started training, offering free or subsidised courses covering a wide range of skills and certifications across both energy efficiency and clean heat measures. More information regarding the skills competition can be found here, with a webpage with links to training provider websites here.
The Government is investing in the UK workforce to ensure that people have the right skills and qualifications to deliver the low-carbon transition and thrive in the high-value jobs this will create. BEIS and the Department for Education (DfE) are jointly leading work to consider the skills and jobs needed to help deliver net zero, including green retrofit skills. The Green Jobs Taskforce is working with industry, unions and providers to develop solutions and recommendations that will be refined into a shortlist of high impact actions that will make up a final Green Jobs Action Plan (February 2021 to April 2021).