Questioner: Paul Sweeney
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many appeals her Department has received under the Green Deal Scheme in the last 12 months, and in which constituencies the appellants are based.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
230 appeals have been received in the last 12 months. The following table shows the constituencies in which the appellants are based.
Parliamentary constituency | Number of appeals |
England |
|
Barrow and Furness | 1 |
Batley and Spen | 2 |
Berwick-upon-Tweed | 1 |
Birmingham, Erdington | 1 |
Birmingham, Hodge Hill | 1 |
Birmingham, Ladywood | 1 |
Birmingham, Perry Barr | 1 |
Bishop Auckland | 1 |
Blackley and Broughton | 1 |
Blackpool South | 2 |
Blaydon | 2 |
Blyth Valley | 1 |
Bolton North East | 1 |
Bolton South East | 1 |
Bradford East | 1 |
Bristol East | 1 |
Bury North | 1 |
Bury South | 1 |
Carlisle | 1 |
City of Durham | 2 |
Cleethorpes | 1 |
Colne Valley | 1 |
Copeland | 1 |
Daventry | 1 |
Ealing Central and Acton | 1 |
Easington | 1 |
Fylde | 1 |
Gloucester | 1 |
Grantham and Stamford | 1 |
Great Grimsby | 1 |
Halton | 1 |
Hartlepool | 2 |
Houghton and Sunderland South | 2 |
Huddersfield | 1 |
Huntingdon | 1 |
Ipswich | 1 |
Jarrow | 1 |
Kingston upon Hull East | 1 |
Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle | 1 |
Kingswood | 1 |
Knowsley | 1 |
Lancaster and Fleetwood | 1 |
Leeds East | 1 |
Leicester South | 1 |
Leigh | 1 |
Liverpool, Walton | 1 |
Liverpool, Wavertree | 2 |
Liverpool, West Derby | 2 |
Manchester, Withington | 1 |
Middlesbrough | 2 |
Milton Keynes South | 1 |
Newcastle upon Tyne Central | 1 |
Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford | 1 |
North Durham | 1 |
North Somerset | 1 |
North Swindon | 1 |
North Tyneside | 1 |
North West Cambridgeshire | 1 |
North West Durham | 1 |
Nottingham East | 3 |
Nottingham North | 1 |
Nottingham South | 1 |
Pendle | 1 |
Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport | 1 |
Preston | 1 |
Rossendale and Darwen | 1 |
Rushcliffe | 1 |
Sedgefield | 1 |
Sheffield Central | 1 |
Sheffield South East | 1 |
Sherwood | 1 |
Southport | 1 |
Stalybridge and Hyde | 1 |
Stockton South | 2 |
Stockton North | 1 |
Tewkesbury | 1 |
Tynemouth | 1 |
Walsall South | 1 |
Washington and Sunderland West | 3 |
Wentworth and Dearne | 1 |
West Lancashire | 1 |
West Suffolk | 1 |
Winchester | 1 |
Workington | 3 |
Wales |
|
Aberavon | 1 |
Cardiff South and Penarth | 1 |
Cynon Valley | 1 |
Llanelli | 1 |
Newport West | 1 |
Rhondda | 2 |
Swansea East | 1 |
Scotland |
|
Airdrie and Shotts | 4 |
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock | 5 |
Central Ayrshire | 5 |
Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill | 3 |
Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East | 4 |
East Dunbartonshire | 1 |
East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow | 5 |
East Lothian | 1 |
East Renfrewshire | 3 |
Edinburgh North and Leith | 1 |
Edinburgh South | 1 |
Edinburgh West | 1 |
Falkirk | 4 |
Glasgow East | 1 |
Glasgow North | 1 |
Glasgow North East | 8 |
Glasgow North West | 4 |
Glasgow South West | 1 |
Glenrothes | 1 |
Inverclyde | 3 |
Kilmarnock and Loudoun | 13 |
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath | 2 |
Lanark and Hamilton East | 2 |
Linlithgow and East Falkirk | 1 |
Livingston | 1 |
Midlothian | 1 |
Motherwell and Wishaw | 3 |
North Ayrshire and Arran | 2 |
Ochil and South Perthshire | 1 |
Paisley and Renfrewshire North | 11 |
Paisley and Renfrewshire South | 4 |
Perth and North Perthshire | 1 |
Rutherglen and Hamilton West | 7 |
Stirling | 3 |
West Dunbartonshire | 5 |
Constituency not yet identified |
|
| 8 |
Questioner: Paul Sweeney
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps her Department has taken to compensate people who have been detrimentally affected by the Green Deal Scheme.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
There is a specific process for handling complaints under the Green Deal. This starts with a complaint by the consumer to their Green Deal Provider. If not resolved satisfactorily, the consumer may then approach the Green Deal Ombudsman or the Financial Ombudsman Service, depending on the nature of the complaint. Their decisions will be binding on the Green Deal Provider. If after progressing through those channels the consumer is still not satisfied, they may request that their complaint be referred to the Secretary of State for consideration.
In respect of such referrals, the Secretary of State may reduce or cancel a Green Deal loan, if she is satisfied that there has been a breach of the law or code of practice.
The cancellation or reduction of a loan represents the full extent of the Secretary of State’s power to provide redress for consumers in relation to the Green Deal.
BEIS aims to ensure that cases are concluded as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring that fair redress is provided where appropriate and decisions take account of all available, relevant evidence.
BEIS currently has a number of outstanding appeal cases and we have taken steps to speed-up the handling process. We are making progress and this has resulted in the recent issuing of 4 final sanctions and 16 Intention Notices. We expect these numbers to increase significantly soon.
Questioner: Paul Sweeney
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what her Department's timescale is for processing appeals from people who claim to have been adversely affected by the Green Deal Scheme.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
There is a specific process for handling complaints under the Green Deal. This starts with a complaint by the consumer to their Green Deal Provider. If not resolved satisfactorily, the consumer may then approach the Green Deal Ombudsman or the Financial Ombudsman Service, depending on the nature of the complaint. Their decisions will be binding on the Green Deal Provider. If after progressing through those channels the consumer is still not satisfied, they may request that their complaint be referred to the Secretary of State for consideration.
In respect of such referrals, the Secretary of State may reduce or cancel a Green Deal loan, if she is satisfied that there has been a breach of the law or code of practice.
The cancellation or reduction of a loan represents the full extent of the Secretary of State’s power to provide redress for consumers in relation to the Green Deal.
BEIS aims to ensure that cases are concluded as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring that fair redress is provided where appropriate and decisions take account of all available, relevant evidence.
BEIS currently has a number of outstanding appeal cases and we have taken steps to speed-up the handling process. We are making progress and this has resulted in the recent issuing of 4 final sanctions and 16 Intention Notices. We expect these numbers to increase significantly soon.
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Speech LinkQuestioner: Paul Sweeney
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what criteria is used by National Grid ESO to determine acceptable levels of regional electricity system restoration capability.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Electricity System Operator (NGESO), has a legal obligation to have a capability to restore the electricity system in the event of a total or partial failure.
In line with historic expectations, NGESO has sourced and procured capability to achieve the restoration of 60% of national demand within 24 hours. This level of demand equates to the level required to run a stable, interconnected Electricity Transmission System, from which remaining demand can be restored.
This approach requires a certain number of self-starting generators to be available in each region and prioritises the restoration of supplies to other generators to maintain a broadly consistent rate of restoration across all GB regions.
The restoration approach is reviewed at least once every two years, to ensure that GB’s restoration capability keeps pace with all relevant technologies and the changes to the electricity system.
Questioner: Paul Sweeney
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how essential electricity system restoration capability will be provided in a zero-carbon electricity system.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The electricity System Operator (National Grid ESO) has a legal license obligation to ensure that it has a restoration capability.
In order to ensure that this capability evolves to provide a safe and effective restoration as the electricity system continues to decarbonise and decentralise, NGESO is undertaking a project to develop and demonstrate new approaches to restore the electricity system from Distributed Energy Resources to increase competition in the market and deliver cost and carbon emission reductions.
BEIS will continue to monitor GB’s changing restoration capability alongside National Grid and Ofgem to ensure it remains robust and effective.