Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many of the 96 weather stations reporting to the Met Office recorded or forecasted 7 day average temperatures of (a) one degree Celsius or below, (b) two degrees celsius or below and (c) three degrees celsius and below between 1 November 2021 and 14 January 2022.
Answered by George Freeman
The information requested for the period 1 November 2021 to 14 January 2022 is contained in the following table:
| Number of weather stations for which 7-day running mean temperature was observed | Number of weather stations for which 7-day running mean temperature was forecast |
one degree celsius or below | 9 | 4 |
two degrees celsius or below | 19 | 14 |
three degrees celsius or below | 48 | 34 |
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when UK Research and Innovation plans to publish its updated thematic areas for its Strategic Priorities Fund.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) provides a mechanism for research and innovation communities to identify and propose priorities for funding. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) ensures that proposals align with the aims of the SPF, including by consulting with departments on Areas of Research Interest. All research themes and currently funded programmes are published on the UKRI website.
There are no current plans to update the research themes.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what investment the UK Space Agency plans to make to mitigate the effect of atmospheric events and space weather on space debris.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Department will publish a new space weather strategy later this year, which will set out a five-year road map for how we intend to boost resilience and build on existing UK strengths and capacity in preparing for and mitigating space weather impacts.
This Government understands that good management of risk is essential for contingency planning, increasing the likelihood that the services we rely on day-to-day remain available for citizens.
In November 2019, the UK Government committed £80m to the European Space Agency Space Safety programme, of which £10m was targeted towards Space weather and debris mitigation development activities, including improving the modelling of how routine and extreme variations in space weather affect space debris.
In addition, this year the UK Space Agency invested a further £1m into projects related to space debris detection and tracking.
Future investment in this area within our National and European Space Agency programmes is subject to the spending review settlement.
The UK is a world leader in space weather forecasting and the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre provides forecasts and warnings of space weather on a 24/7 basis. The UK Space Agency works with the Met Office to ensure the continuity of space weather observational data.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many Debt Relief Order applications have been (a) accepted and (b) rejected by the Insolvency Service in each year since 2015.
Answered by Paul Scully
The table below provides a summary of Debt Relief Order (DRO) applications that have been accepted and rejected in each financial year since 2015/16, as of 23rd March 2021.
Accepted DRO applications can later be revoked. Revocation of a DRO occurs where information subsequently comes to light that the individual:
DRO applications, rejections and revocations
1st April 2015 to 23rd March 2021
Year | DRO Applications accepted | DRO Applications rejected | DRO Applications revoked |
2015/16 | 24,922 | 96 | 301 |
2016/17 | 25,593 | 82 | 275 |
2017/18 | 24,969 | 66 | 212 |
2018/19 | 28,085 | 86 | 251 |
2019/20 | 27,434 | 62 | 290 |
2020/21 to date | 17,265 | 49 | 266 |
Revoked DROs are presented in the table based on their revocation date which may not be the same period in which the application was accepted.
The Insolvency Service’s published DRO statistics exclude all accepted DROs that have later been revoked. The Insolvency Service’s latest National Statistics publication on DROs can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/individual-insolvency-statistics-october-to-december-2020.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the unit cost incurred by the Insolvency Service is to process an application for a Debt Relief Order.
Answered by Paul Scully
The unit cost for processing Debt Relief Order applications varies according to case volumes in any given financial year due to the costs being a mix of fixed and variable costs.
Using the costs for the financial year 2019/2020 and the costs for the current financial year to the end of February, the average unit cost of a Debt Relief Order application is £88.81
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on improving democratic participation in the Committee on Climate Change.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is an independent, statutory body made up of highly esteemed academics and experts across a range of key sectors. The CCC provides expert analysis and advice to government on climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Committee must have regard to the desirability of involving the public when carrying out its functions.
It will be vital for Government to engage the public on our net zero by 2050 target. We have invited the public to shape policies on climate change through consultations and deliberative dialogues (for example, on heat and transport decarbonisation, on the environment). As we develop our plans for reaching net zero emissions by 2050, we will continue to engage the public on the changes that are needed to develop our ambitions on net zero.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
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 increase Government-backed research into the domestic manufacture of decarbonised steel.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government recognises the importance of research and development in helping to transform the steel sector so that it can play a vital role in developing a cleaner, greener economy in the UK. We have taken a number of steps to facilitate the decarbonisation of steel making in the UK, including;
Firstly, a £315 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund which aims to support businesses with high energy use to cut their bills and reduce carbon emissions.
Secondly, providing up to £66m through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to help steel and other foundation industries develop radical new technologies and establish innovation centres of excellence in these sectors.
Thirdly, establishing a £250m Clean Steel Fund that will support the decarbonisation of the steel sector, supporting its transition to new low carbon technologies and processes. The Government also plans to establish a Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (previously Low Carbon Hydrogen Production Fund): with £240m of capital co-investment out to 2024/25. This will support at-scale production from both Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) enabled (‘blue’) hydrogen and electrolytic (‘green’) hydrogen projects.
Finally, as part of the Spring 2020 Budget, the Chancellor announced £22m (subject to a business case) for the Materials Processing Institute in Teesside to deliver a R&D programme of transformation manufacturing - to help UK steel and metals sector improve efficiencies, slash emissions and ultimately boost global competitive edge.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on maintaining domestic coal supplies for the heritage rail sector.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
In line with our Net Zero target, the Government is committed to phasing out unabated coal-fired electricity generation by 2025, and recently consulted on moving this date forward to 2024. This policy applies to coal-fired power stations only – it does not apply to other coal consumers such as heritage railways.
Although coal will soon no longer be part of our electricity system, it will continue to be used as a fuel by a wide range of other industries such as the iron, steel and cement industries. We are confident that heritage railways will continue to have the option to tap into this significant domestic market. The decision on where to source coal for use in heritage railways and other industries is a private matter for the companies involved