Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what resources were allocated under Round 8A of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, by gender of the recipients.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
A total of 232 applications were received for Round 8A of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund: 187 applications were submitted by males, 35 applications were submitted by females, and 10 applications were not declared as either male or female.
The number of grants won by female applicants is 10, and the number of grants won by male applicants is 48. Total grant won by female applicants is £5,047,972.43; with an average grant of £504,797. Total grant won by male applicants is £24,896,036.38; with an average £518,667.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when guidance will be made available for businesses expected to implement NHS Covid Pass entry for indoor and outdoor gatherings.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Working Safely guidance was updated on 15 December to reflect Plan B measures including the NHS COVID Pass. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-covid-19/restaurants-pubs-bars-nightclubs-and-takeaway-services#hospitality-2-2.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the average loan-to-value ratio of hospitality businesses in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has provided an unprecedented £400bn package of support for UK businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, which included government backed loans, business support grants, business rates relief, CJRS and VAT cuts for food and beverage. The Government’s Covid-19 loan schemes provided a lifeline to millions of businesses, including those in the hospitality sector, across the UK – helping them survive the pandemic and protecting millions of jobs.
As of 31 May 2021, over £79 billion has been lent through the schemes. The schemes closed for new applications on 31 March 2021. Analysis from the British Business Bank in January 2021 shows that the proportion of overall Coronavirus loans in each of the nine English regions and three Devolved Nations matches closely their respective share of the UK business population.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2021 to Question 73936, on Coronavirus: Vaccination, what the average cost to the public purse was of purchasing each of those 100 million doses.
Answered by George Freeman
As laid out in my answer on 17 November, the cost of these doses will depend on both the specific vaccines donated and their cost. Unfortunately, we are not able to disclose specific costs of individual vaccines procured to date, as details of contracts between the Government and vaccine manufacturers are commercially sensitive. As such, we would not be able to disclose an average cost for these vaccines.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of hospitality businesses that applied for a loan under the Recovery Loan Scheme were successful in their application in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The most recent data published on RLS is available at the following link: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/press-release/recovery-loan-scheme-offers-over-1bn-to-smaller-businesses/. Lenders are only required to notify the British Business Bank of facilities that have been offered and drawn.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the £43,379,999 for the sharing of 100 million doses of covid-19 vaccines with countries in need, published in his Department's Development Tracker, what the cost of purchasing those 100 million doses was to the public purse.
Answered by George Freeman
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister, at the G7 Summit in June, committed to donate 100m doses that we do not need for the UK vaccination programme. The cost of these doses will depend on both the specific vaccines donated and their cost. The cost of COVID-19 vaccine donations will be funded through UK Official Development Assistance and will be reported as such.
We are not able to disclose specific costs of individual vaccines procured to date, as details of contracts between the Government and vaccine manufacturers are commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
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 effectiveness of the renewable heat incentive policy in reducing the price of heat pump installations.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
A full evaluation of the effectiveness of the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) in incentivising the rollout of renewable heat technologies, including the impact on the cost and quality of heat pump installations, is still in progress. An evaluation report of the domestic scheme will be published after the domestic RHI has closed in March 2022.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many covid-19 vaccine doses COVAX has sent to the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
As set out in the answer given to the Hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion on 13th September 2021 to Question 41806, the UK committed approximately £71 million to the self-financing facility of COVAX, which enables high and upper-middle income countries to pool investments in potential vaccine candidates and supported its establishment last year. This gives us the option to buy vaccines for up to 20% of the UK population - approximately 27 million doses. The Government has separately committed £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, which will distribute 1.2 billion doses of vaccines to developing countries this year.
In addition, I am proud that as part of our commitment to the G7 to donate 100 million doses over the course of the next year, the UK has so far donated over 10 million doses to those countries most in need, of which over 6 million have gone to COVAX. Throughout the COVID-19 vaccination programme, vaccine supply and deliveries have been carefully managed by the Vaccine Taskforce to meet the requirements of the domestic vaccination programme as well as support other countries’ domestic campaigns. The recent sharing of 4 million doses with Australia is a good example of this.
The UK procured approximately 0.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine through COVAX, which were delivered earlier this year. These doses helped the NHS deliver our vaccination programme as quickly as possible. No further doses have been received by the UK from COVAX.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding was allocated to the 12 International Research Hubs from the Global Challenges Research Fund for (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
For financial year 2019/20, £40m was allocated to the Global Challenges Research Fund International Research Hubs. For each of financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22 they were allocated £41m. Final spend amounts are reported on a Calendar Year basis through the Statistics on International Development reporting process, published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many surplus covid-19 vaccines the UK will have accumulated by the end of 2021.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has announced that the UK will donate at least 100 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses within the next year, including 5 million by the end of September and a further 25 million by the end of 2021.
The Government has committed that 80% of our surplus vaccines will go to COVAX, the multilateral facility responsible for distributing COVID-19 vaccines to ensure equitable global access. The remainder will be shared bilaterally with countries in need. The Government will set out more detail in due course.