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 his Department is taking steps to provide support for gas boilers installers retraining as heat pump installers in advance of the implementation of the Future Homes Standard in 2025.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government is working closely with industry to support gas boiler installers retraining to install heat pumps. In September 2020 the Government launched a £6 million skills competition to provide training opportunities for the energy-efficiency and low-carbon heating supply chains, including heat pump training for over 2000 heating engineers. The Government is developing plans for a further Skills Training Competition in 2022/23 and intends to continue work with industry to support retraining.
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, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of a heat pump installer certification scheme, similar to the Gas Safe Register, to protect consumers who are purchasing heat pumps.
Answered by Greg Hands
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Strangford on 1st July 2022 to Question 22437.
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
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
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.