Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland are on a Standard Variable Tariff for their electricity and gas supply; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department estimates that there are around 15 million households in the UK on standard variable tariffs.
| Electricity | Gas |
England & Wales | 13,000,000 | 10,600,000 |
Scotland | 1,400,000 | 1,100,000 |
Northern Ireland | 700,000 | 200,000 |
UK | 15,000,000 | 12,000,000 |
Information is collected by Electricity PES (Public Electricity Suppliers) area, so data for England and Wales are not available separately. The above estimates based on survey data include households on standard pre-payment tariffs.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland will be better off as a result of the Ofgem price cap on domestic energy bills announced on 6 September 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The price cap will protect around 11 million households in England, Scotland and Wales on standard variable tariffs (SVTs) in addition to around 5 million people already protected by the safeguard tariff. Of those SVT households that will be protected by the price cap, the Department estimates that around 1 million households are in Scotland and around 10 million in England & Wales. Energy policy is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland, where there are existing arrangements to cap certain prices in the market.
Under Ofgem’s proposals those on SVTs will be better off, with some customers on the most expensive tariffs saving around £138 a year.
These figures are based on Ofgem’s typical domestic consumption values of 3.1MWh per year of electricity and 12MWh per year of gas.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 has made an assessment of the potential effect on consumers’ energy bills of the phasing out of unabated coal fired power stations in 2025; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
An estimate of impacts of the policy to end unabated coal electricity generation was made in November 2017 and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/671959/FINAL_updated_unabated_coal_Impact_Assessment_Jan_2018.pdf
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 aware of any way of making (a) steel and (b) cement without using coal as a heat source and in the chemical production process; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
Steel made via the electric arc furnace process does not require coal, as it melts steel scrap directly in the furnace.
Full replacement of fossil fuels in cement manufacture is technically possible but there are barriers and significant investment would be needed. In 2016 the UK cement industry replaced 39% of its fuel demand with waste derived alternatives. The industry is working with Government to increase this further, through the joint Action Plan for the Industrial Decarbonisation and Energy Efficiency Roadmaps Programme published in October 2017.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households in the UK are not connected to the mains gas grid; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
BEIS estimated that 13.9 per cent of households in Great Britain are not connected to the gas grid, equating to approximately 3.7m households.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what information he holds on how much steel is required on average to build a family car in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The World Steel Association estimates that the global average steel use per car is around 900 Kg. Other sources produce a similar figure. We do not hold a separate figure for UK car production, but believe it will be consistent with the global figure.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 ensure that demand for electricity in the UK does not outstrip supply in the next six months of 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Capacity Market (CM) is at the heart of the Government’s plans for a reliable electricity system, and through CM auctions that have already been held we have secured all the capacity needed to meet expected demand on the system in 2018/19.
National Grid’s Summer Outlook 2018, published in April, confirmed electricity supplies are expected to be sufficient to meet demand this Summer while its 2018 Winter Review and Consultation 2018, published in June, states that electricity margins for the coming Winter are expected to be in line with the healthy margin of 10.3% we had for Winter 2017/18.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the demand for coal was in each year since 2010; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The table below gives the demand for coal from 2010 - 2017:
| UK coal demand (thousand tonnes) (1) |
2010 | 51,324 |
2011 | 51,507 |
2012 | 64,042 |
2013 | 60,206 |
2014 | 48,295 |
2015 | 37,451 |
2016 | 17,745 |
2017 | 14,183 |
(1) Includes coal used for electricity generation, heat generation, coke manufacture, blast furnaces, patent fuel manufacture, energy used in coal extraction and final consumption by industry, transport, domestic and other users.
Source: Energy Trends table 2.1 June 2018 available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solid-fuels-and-derived-gases-section-2-energy-trends
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the demand for coal has been excluding electricity generation in each year since 2010; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The table below gives the demand for coal excluding electricity generation from 2010 - 2017:
| UK coal demand (thousand tonnes) (1) |
2010 | 9,827 |
2011 | 9,658 |
2012 | 9,141 |
2013 | 10,333 |
2014 | 10,061 |
2015 | 8,121 |
2016 | 5,689 |
2017 | 5,459 |
(1) Includes coal used for heat generation, coke manufacture, blast furnaces, patent fuel manufacture, energy used in coal extraction and final consumption by industry, transport, domestic and other users.
Source: Energy Trends table 2.1 June 2018 available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solid-fuels-and-derived-gases-section-2-energy-trends
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the main policy priority is for his Department for 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Department’s priority is to build an economy that works for everyone, with great places across the UK for people to work and for businesses to invest, innovate and grow. To do this, we are delivering the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy, which sets out a long-term plan to boost the productivity and earning power of people throughout the UK.
This ambition is all the more important as we leave the European Union, a move which allows – and requires – the government and the country to make long-term decisions about our economic future, and set out a positive and bold vision for the country’s future.