Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase consumer awareness of heat pumps in advance of the implementation of the Future Homes Standard in 2025.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is working to review and improve its communication to ensure that the public has access to the information and advice they need to make the right decisions. The Government has recently published a series of heat pump user case studies and heat pump user guides with Energy Systems Catapult. There is also further information and advice on heat pumps available through Simple Energy Advice service and the recently launched ‘Check if your home could be suitable for a heat pump’ calculator on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the level of consistency between the UK’s recently-negotiated carve-out of fossil fuels from the Energy Charter Treaty and the UK Government's net zero strategy.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The modernised Energy Charter Treaty recognises the urgent need to address climate change and align with the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement. The Treaty removes the protection for new fossil fuel investments in the UK, in line with the UK’s Net Zero Strategy.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to reduce potential bureaucratic barriers for scientists wishing to access the £50 million funding for motor neurone disease research announced in November 2021.
Answered by George Freeman
Funding for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) research is available now through applications to the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The NIHR and UKRI are undertaking new activities to support the MND research community in effectively accessing funding. This includes a new £4.25 million MND partnership, which the government is delivering alongside charity partners, to pool expertise and resources across the research community to coordinate access to the committed funding.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many and what proportion of jobs supported directly and indirectly by the UK oil and gas industry are in the supply chain.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Industry representative body Offshore Energies UK estimates that 178,500 jobs were supported by the UK oil and gas industry in 2021, including 25,700 direct and 91,700 indirect jobs in the supply chain.
These estimates are set out in the Workforce Insight Report 2021, which is published at oeuk.org.uk/product/workforce-insight-report-2021.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the outcome of the Designing a climate compatibility checkpoint for future oil and gas licensing in the UK Continental Shelf consultation will be announced; when he expects such a checkpoint to come into force; and whether the checkpoint will require primary or secondary legislation.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government invited contributions on the design of the checkpoint, with a public consultation which closed at the end of February.
The Government is considering the responses to the consultation, including consideration of whether to put the checkpoint on a statutory footing, and will respond to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons customers that use hydrotreated vegetable oil for heating and hot water in rural, off-grid homes are not able to benefit from the discounts of up to 80p per litre through government-supported obligation schemes, that are available to customers who use that fuel for vehicles, mobile machinery and aircraft.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government recognises that biofuels such as hydrotreated vegetable oil biodiesel may play a role in future off-gas-grid decarbonisation, particularly for properties that are not suitable for a heat pump.
However, further evidence is needed to consider what role these biofuels could play and to develop the policy framework which would support such a role.
The forthcoming Biomass Strategy will consider evidence on the likely supply and sustainability of mass feedstocks, including those used to produce biofuels, available to the UK, the total lifecycle emissions for different biomass uses, and the best uses of biomass across the economy to achieve the Government’s net zero target.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many off gas grid homes that applied to join the electrification of heat demonstration project heat pump trial were declined on the grounds of technical reasoning, cost or disruption caused.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Due to high levels of interest in the Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project, the majority of applicants did not progress through to installation, because they either did not meet the project requirements - including a target of 85% of homes to be on the gas grid - or withdrew from the project. Further findings and data from the project will be published in due course.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether Government policy on the roll out of heat pumps will not be finalised until the trials of the electrification of heat demonstration project are complete and a full report has been published, including all technical and financial data, to enable time for sufficient scrutiny of the project.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As set out in the Heat and Buildings Strategy, the Government is taking action now to decarbonise heat in buildings and to stay on track to meet net zero. Extensive evidence suggests that heat pumps are a cost-effective means of decarbonising heat in homes and businesses. The Government will soon launch the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to support the installation of heat pumps. The Electrification of the Heat Demonstration Project will provide further insights into enabling heat pump deployment. Findings and data from the project will be published in due course.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress his Department is making on the Employment Bill; and when he plans to introduce that legislation.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Employment Bill will support the Government’s aim to build a high skilled, high productivity, high wage economy that delivers on our ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to work and grow a business. COVID-19 is having a profound impact on the labour market, so it is right that we introduce the Employment Bill when we are sure it will address the needs of businesses and workers in the post-Covid economy. We will bring forward the Employment Bill when the Parliamentary time allows it. In the meantime, we will continue to take necessary action to support businesses and protect jobs.
We have already made significant progress in bringing forward legislation to protect workers’ rights, including:
Announcing a new naming scheme for employers who fail to pay Employment Tribunal awards.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What steps his Department is taking to increase funding for research and development.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
We are making the UK a Science Superpower and the Spending Review confirmed we will be funding the fastest increase in R&D spending ever. We are increasing core science funding, doubling Innovate UK’s budget, giving £800m for ARIA and putting £1.7bn into Net Zero R&D.