Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he will introduce further financial support packages on the cost of energy for people reliant on heating oil.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Alternative Fuel Payment scheme will provide a £100 one-off payment to UK households that use alternative fuels for heating, such as heating oil or LPG, instead of mains gas. The £100 is designed by reference to past increases in the cost of heating oil (from September 2021 to September 2022). The Government will be monitoring the price of heating oil and other alternative fuels closely in the months ahead to see if further payments are required in future.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 Prime Minister about the Prime Minister's potential attendance at COP27.
Answered by Graham Stuart
My Rt. Hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Prime Minister and I have all confirmed our attendance at COP27 in Egypt to deliver on Glasgow’s COP26 legacy of building a secure and sustainable future.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the evidential basis was for his Department's decision to set the level of support for people who use heating oil at £100.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The £100 payment has been calculated to ensure that a typical customer using heating oil does not face a higher rate of growth in their heating costs since last winter, in comparison to those using mains gas who are supported by the Energy Price Guarantee.
More details on the exact calculation can be found on pages 28-29 of the Government’s published Impact Assessment:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-03/0159/AnnexB.pdf.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate has he made of the average (a) monthly and (b) annual costs of heating oil for UK homes using that fuel.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department publishes monthly and annual data on domestic heating oil prices as part of the Quarterly Energy Prices statistical collection here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/monthly-domestic-energy-price-stastics.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 number of people reliant on oil for heating in (a) Midlothian constituency, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Survey data only exists at a national level for the numbers of properties that use oil as a main heating source.
In Scotland, as reported in the Scottish House Condition Survey (https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-house-condition-survey-2019-key-findings/pages/4/), 129,000 households (5 per cent) used oil as their primary heating fuel in 2019.
In England, as reported in the English Housing Survey (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/energy-performance), 762,000 dwellings (3.2 per cent) used oil central heating as their main heating system in 2020.
In Wales, as reported in the Welsh Housing Conditions Survey (https://gov.wales/welsh-housing-conditions-survey-energy-efficiency-dwellings-april-2017-march-2018), 135,000 dwellings (10 per cent) used oil as their primary heating fuel in 2017-18. These figures also use published Household estimates (https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Housing/Households/Estimates/households-by-localauthority-year) for the number of households.
In Northern Ireland, as reported in the Northern Ireland Housing Statistics 526,190 dwellings (67.5 per cent) used oil as their primary heating fuel in 2016.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 increases in the rising cost of fuel, what steps the Government are taking to provide support to those who use biomass fuel.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Alternative Fuel Payment scheme is intended to deliver a one-off payment of £100 to households who are not on the mains gas grid and therefore use alternative fuels to heat their homes. Non-domestic consumers will receive comparable support; further detail will be announced shortly.
The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Fund is intended to provide the £400 of support for households that would miss out on the Energy Bills Support Scheme due to not having a domestic electricity contract. The Alternative Funding will be made available for this winter, with an announcement in due course.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which Department is responsible for the removal and storage sector.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Many business sectors such as removals and storage are cross cutting, and officials across Government are in regular contact, sharing information and exploring potential solutions to the many challenges these industries face. I would encourage the sector to continue engaging with Government Departments which own individual policy areas.
Departments will work collectively to ensure that the removals and storage sector continues to play a leading role in growing the UK’s economy.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government will introduce legislative proposals to protect people who have been scammed by rogue builders.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government is committed to strengthening consumer rights including improving consumers’ access to redress in the domestic construction sector.
The Government requires tradespeople working on our domestic household decarbonisation retrofit programmes to be TrustMark registered, and for projects to meet the PAS 2035 standard for retrofit. The Department is also working closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to strengthen the consumer protections available through Competent Person Schemes
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 an outreach and public information campaign to encourage landlords with a domestic electricity connection who charge all-inclusive rent to pass on the discount to their tenants.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Landlords with a domestic electricity connection who charge ‘all inclusive’ rent with no specified charge for gas or electricity should be passing on the discounted payments to tenants.
Landlords who resell the electricity to their tenants based on energy usage must comply with Ofgem’s ‘maximum resale price’ rules. Ofgem’s guidance is available here.
The Government is working with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to enlist the support of key stakeholder groups in the private rented sector to help communicate this information.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government will develop a set of space sustainability targets.
Answered by Jane Hunt
The Government has set out its commitment to space sustainability in the National Space Strategy, which commits to ensuring space remains safe, secure and sustainable.
We are already delivering that commitment - on 23 June we announced the first ever Plan for Space Sustainability. This encompasses a range of ambitious measures that show UK leadership to advance the sustainable future of space, including:
- Demonstrating continued regulatory leadership.
- Demonstrating UK global leadership.
- Leadership on meeting sustainability standards through the development of an industry-led standard for space sustainability.
- Continuing to enhance national and global capacity.