Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the resilience of rural electricity networks.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government works closely with industry to improve and maintain the resilience of old and new energy infrastructure, networks and assets, to reduce vulnerabilities, and ensure an effective response to actual or potentially disruptive incidents.
For example, the Department published the Storm Arwen Review in June 2022 which includes actions being undertaken to reduce the impact of electricity disruption in rural areas.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
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 support households (a) with a low income, (b) in listed buildings, (c) in long term rentals and (d) in short term holiday lets in rural communities to improve the insulation of their homes.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has allocated £3.2 billion in this Parliament to improve home energy efficiency. The Government's approach to supporting fuel poor households was set out in the fuel poverty strategy, Sustainable Warmth, in February 2021.
The cost-of-living crisis gives even greater urgency for action to make homes more energy efficient and reduce energy bills. Through the Governments ‘Help to Heat’ capital schemes, domestic consumers could potentially save between £300and £700 per annum, based on the current price cap.
Work is ongoing to meet the commitment in the British Energy Security Strategy to review the planning barriers households face when installing energy efficiency measures in conservation areas and listed buildings.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the rollout out of Electric Vehicle charging points, particularly in rural areas.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Of the £2.5 billion of Government funding committed to the Electric Vehicle (EV) transition since 2020, £1.6 billion will be invested into accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure, targeting support on rapid chargepoints on motorways and major A roads to assuage any anxiety around long journeys, and installing more on-street chargepoints near homes and workplaces to make charging reliable and easy.
In the spring we published our electric vehicle infrastructure strategy, which defines our vision for the continued roll-out of a world-leading network. The strategy laid out our commitments to make EV charging cheaper and more convenient than refuelling at a petrol station right across the country.
The Department for Transport monitors the progress of the installation of chargepoints and publishes data, broken down to local authority areas, on a quarterly basis, the latest of which was as at 1st July 2022. Government will continue to monitor market developments to determine whether any significant gaps in charging infrastructure provision emerge in the medium term and whether there may be a case for direct central government support in areas of market failure, which may include rural areas.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's timescale is for the publication of the Government's biomass strategy.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is actively progressing work on the biomass strategy, including work on the assessment of the priority use of biomass across the economy, which will be explained in the forthcoming strategy. The Government plans to publish the Biomass Strategy in due course.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
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 ScotWind's announcement on the outcome of its application process for leasing on January 2022, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there is sufficient supply chain development around the Celtic Sea to ensure that the potential benefits of floating offshore wind are distributed across the whole UK.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Celtic Sea will play a vital role in the UK’s Green Industrial revolution, creating new industries and thousands of high-skilled jobs. Floating offshore wind will be a vital component of the UK’s energy mix as the UK moves towards net zero. The Government has committed to delivering at least 1GW of floating capacity by 2030 as a stepping-stone to larger scale deployment through the 2030s. In the draft budget notice for the fourth Contracts for Difference round, the Government announced ringfenced support for floating offshore wind.
The Celtic Sea is an area of significant potential for floating offshore wind. In addition to the test and demonstration floating projects already in early development, the Crown Estate has commenced work on a floating wind leasing round in the Celtic Sea which could bring forward up to 4GW of new projects. Government has set aside up to £160 million to support new floating wind ports and infrastructure; projects servicing the Celtic Sea will be eligible to access this support.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
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 help ensure that UK businesses can prevent the products of human rights violations in China, particularly in the supply chain for solar farms through polysilicon, from being installed in local areas.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We are thoroughly investigating reports of forced labour in the global solar panel supply chain. In January, we announced a comprehensive package of measures to help ensure no UK organisations are complicit in the serious human rights violations being perpetrated against the Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what research the Government is funding on how UK businesses and their supply chains make, use and dispose of plastic, and the risks those actions pose to human health.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government put together a package of £100 million for research and innovation to tackle the issues that arise from plastic waste. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funds a variety of projects related to plastics including around understanding and improving supply chains and environmental and health impacts. For example, the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, with £60m of funding from UKRI through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and matched by £149m from industry, is supporting academic-led research to address known problems and to support industry-led collaborative research and development of new technologies, establishing the UK as a leader in smart sustainable packaging and supporting a reduction in waste entering the environment. This builds on the success of the £20m Plastic Research and Innovation Fund, which established projects like the UK Circular Plastics Network which brings together the diverse users of plastic products and realise the best means for reducing plastic waste.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made ahead of COP26 of the potential merits of developing floating offshore wind generation in the Celtic Sea to help the UK Government deliver its target of 1GW of energy by 2030.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Celtic Sea is an area with significant potential for floating offshore wind. Following engagement with the market, The Crown Estate is currently designing new seabed leasing for floating wind in the Celtic Sea, focusing on projects up to 300MW. The number, size and locations of potential projects will not be known until the process is completed.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of Sate, what steps he plans to take ahead of COP26 to achieve the Government's (a) net zero target and (b) levelling-up agenda in the context of the development of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has achieved record clean growth - between 1990 and 2019, our economy grew by 78% while our emissions decreased by 44%, the fastest in the G7. The government has recently laid legislation for the UK’s sixth carbon budget, proposing a target which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. This marks a decisive step towards net zero by 2050 and builds on the series of ambitious plans we have announced since committing to net zero emissions in law, including through my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan and our new UN climate target to reduce emissions in 2030 by at least 68% compared to 1990 levels – the highest reduction target made by a major economy to date.
Through the Ten Point Plan, our Energy White Paper and Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, we have set out concrete steps we will take to build back greener from the pandemic and reach net zero emissions by 2050. Ahead of COP26, we will bring forward further bold proposals, including a Net Zero Strategy, to cut emissions and create new jobs and industries across the whole country.
The Ten Point Plan announced our aim to quadruple the capacity of our offshore wind available to generate 40GW, including 1GW of floating offshore wind by 2030 - enough to power every home in the country. To do this we are investing £160 million for ports and infrastructure, which could support up to 60,000 jobs. The government is working with the offshore wind sector, through the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, to grow and strengthen a competitive UK based supply chain creating jobs around the UK.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has held with the Department for Transport on the deployment of the Government's proposed funding for the purchase of 4,000 zero-emissions buses.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The funding for 4000 zero emission buses formed part of my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s commitment to £5 billion of new funding announced in February to overhaul bus and cycle links for every region outside London.
The Government recognises the importance of bringing together co-ordinated policy action across all departments, to achieve net zero. Two cabinet committees have been established, chaired by the Prime Minister and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. These Committees are driving forward the net zero transition and co-ordinating action across Government. At official level, there are also regular discussions between departments on issues relating to transport decarbonisation, as there are for decarbonisation in other sectors of the economy.