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 effectiveness of sand batteries in tackling climate change.
Answered by Greg Hands
BEIS has not made any specific assessment of the effectiveness of sand batteries. However, sand batteries form part of a class of technologies known as thermal storage, all of which play a similar role in supporting the changes to the energy system needed to address climate change. These technologies are in an early stage of development and BEIS fund innovation in thermal storage as part of the Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration Programme. A list of projects funded can be found here:
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 has made an assessment of the impact of rising temperatures on the capacity of nuclear reactors to maintain adequate levels of cold water.
Answered by Greg Hands
All UK nuclear reactors take their cooling from the sea, which is largely unaffected by short-term peaks in ambient temperature. Heatwaves will not lead to unexpected reactor outages.
The independent regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (the ONR), requires all of its nuclear site licensees to demonstrate resilience against external hazards like extremes of temperature. This must be updated regularly to reflect the latest evidence and climate projections.
The ONR would not allow a nuclear installation to operate if it judged that it was not safe to do so.
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 make a comparative assessment of the merits of different systems of (a) maternity, (b) paternity and (c) shared parental leave.
Answered by Jane Hunt
In 2019 the Government consulted on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay. This consultation considers the objectives of parental leave and pay entitlements as a whole as well as specific entitlements.
We are currently considering responses to the consultation and will respond 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, if he will make it his policy to require landlords who include tenants' energy costs in their rental charges to pass on the Energy Bills Support Scheme credit to their tenants, and to provide a means of redress for those tenants in case that credit is not passed on to them.
Answered by Greg Hands
Landlords who have a domestic electricity contract with an electricity supplier and resell the electricity to their tenants based on energy usage may be required to comply with the maximum resale price (MRP) rules. The MRP for electricity is currently set as the same price as that paid by the person reselling it. Under these circumstances, the Government expect landlords to pass on the discount received through tenants.
Landlords with a domestic electricity connection who charge ‘all inclusive’ rent, where a fixed cost for energy costs are included in their rental charges, are strongly encouraged to pass on the discount to their tenants.
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 make it his policy to require landlords who include tenants energy costs in their rental charges to pass on the Energy Bills Support Scheme credit to their tenants.
Answered by Greg Hands
Landlords who have a domestic electricity contract with an electricity supplier and resell the electricity to their tenants based on energy usage may be required to comply with the maximum resale price (MRP) rules. The MRP for electricity is currently set as the same price as that paid by the person reselling it. Under these circumstances, the Government expect landlords to pass on the discount received through tenants.
Landlords with a domestic electricity connection who charge ‘all inclusive’ rent, where a fixed cost for energy costs are included in their rental charges, are strongly encouraged to pass on the discount to their tenants.
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 steps he is taking to encourage industrial symbiosis.
Answered by Lee Rowley
BEIS is exploring the role that industrial symbiosis can play in reducing emissions from industry and how best to facilitate this. The Department is engaging with stakeholders to learn from regional and international experiences, most recently through interactions with the All-Party Parliamentary Manufacturing Group’s event “Industrial Symbiosis: using resource efficiency to achieve net zero goals”.
DEFRA is developing a digital waste tracking system, which will improve understanding of stocks and flows of waste returned to the economy as secondary materials. This improved access to data can unlock further industrial symbiosis opportunities
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 introduce new regulatory regimes to provide statutory protections for consumers aimed at strengthening protections for policy holders with companies in administration.
Answered by Paul Scully
The insolvency regime strikes a balance when distributing funds from insolvent estates to ensure that all creditors in an insolvency are treated fairly. Changing that balance, by giving a higher priority to certain customers, will have a detrimental impact on other unsecured creditors, as well as having wider implications (for example, on lending, credit terms, and other trade activity). Protection of policy holders is a matter for regulators in the sectors in which they operate rather than in the insolvency framework.