Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her Department's latest estimate is of the capital expenditure cost of a new 1GW green hydrogen plant commissioning by 2030.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
‘Hydrogen Production Costs 2021’, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in August 2021, sets out the levelised cost, based on commissioning year, of various hydrogen production technologies. The information requested can be found in the table ‘Technical and cost assumptions (2020 real prices) within the annex to the report. The capital expenditure associated with a 1GW electrolytic plant commissioning in 2030 ranges from £433 million to £1,708 million depending on the technology. Please see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hydrogen-production-costs-2021
We will continue to monitor and update cost estimates based on new evidence as it becomes available.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her Department's latest estimate is of the capital expenditure cost of a new 1GW blue hydrogen plant commissioning by 2030.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
‘Hydrogen Production Costs 2021’, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in August 2021, sets out the levelised cost of various hydrogen production technologies. The information requested can be found in the table ‘Technical and cost assumptions (2020 real prices) within the annex to the report. Therefore, the cost from the table is £531 /kW hydrogen HHV meaning £531M for the 1GW plant.
Please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hydrogen-production-costs-2021
We will continue to monitor and update cost estimates based on new evidence as it becomes available.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent estimate her Department has made of the operating expenditure cost of generating one tonne of blue hydrogen in a plant commissioning by 2030.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
'Hydrogen Production Costs 2021’, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in August 2021, sets out the levelised cost of various hydrogen production technologies. The annex to the report (worksheet '2030_R') sets out a range of levelised costs for gas reformation with CCUS (blue) hydrogen production commissioning in 2030. Costs range from 1,454 to 3,096 £/tonne hydrogen depending on technology [1]. Please see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hydrogen-production-costs-2021
We will continue to monitor and update cost estimates based on new evidence as it becomes available.
[1] Costs are calculated on the basis that the hydrogen is used for combustion and the latent heat of vaporisation of water is recovered.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of bringing forward the ban on flaring to 2025.
Answered by Graham Stuart
I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to the Hon Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) on 13 June 2023 to Question UIN 188490.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will (a) ask the Environment Agency to conduct bathing water tests in the context of the activation of storm overflows and (b) make an assessment of the potential merits of routinely conducting bathing water tests all year round.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Event duration monitoring (EDM) data shows how often storm overflows are active and for how long. Government directed water companies to increase their storm overflow monitoring in 2013 and achieved 100% EDM coverage before the end of 2023. This increased transparency will help regulators hold water companies to account to reduce storm overflow discharges and will support public understanding of water quality. The Bathing Water Regulations require the Environment Agency to sample bathing waters at a fixed location using a pre-determined sampling schedule during the bathing season, which is fixed in the Bathing Water Regulations as 15 May to 30 September. The government is committed to reviewing the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to ensure they reflect changes in how and where people use bathing waters.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what funding is available for Georgeham Parish Council to apply for to repair the parish church grounds and supporting boundary walls.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
If the churchyard is open, then the Parochial Church Council is responsible for maintenance and upkeep. If it has been closed for burials by Order in Council, the statutory responsibility falls to the Local Authority unless a local arrangement has been reached. I will ask the diocese to make contact with the Parochial Church Council and Local Authority to see if they can offer advice.
Local Authorities are able to make small grants available to Parochial Church Councils to support the maintenance and upkeep of a churchyard, whether open or closed. The Church Commissioners are grateful to the Government for its clarification of the law in the recent Levelling Up and Regeneration Act, which now enables Local Authorities like all other faith communities to give grants to parish churches who need support with the maintenance of their buildings and fabric.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to ban the use of bottom-towed fishing gear in marine protected areas on a whole-site basis.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a devolved competency and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
Each MPA protects specific features, whether that is a particular species or a variety of different habitats. Byelaws to protect MPAs from damaging fishing activity are developed using an evidence-led process to determine what measures are required to protect these specific features. Site by site assessments are carried out to tailor management measures and to avoid unnecessary restrictions on fishing. Only fishing activities which could damage the protected features of an MPA require management.
Nearly 60% of the 181 English MPAs are already protected from damaging fishing activity. This includes byelaws made in 2022, which ban bottom towed gear over sensitive features in the first four offshore sites. The Marine Management Organisation consulted in 2023 on similar proposals for a further 13 sites; a decision on this will be taken shortly. We have also recently designated three Highly Protected Marine Areas. These sites have the highest level of protection in English waters and take a whole-site approach.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing national minimum standards for investigations into road collisions.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Standards in relation to the investigation of fatal and serious injury road collisions is set out in authorised professional practice published by the College of Policing.
Further details can be found at: Investigation of fatal and serious injury road collisions | College of Policing
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's guidance entitled Senior mental health lead training, which schools in North Devon constituency have applied for the senior mental health training grant.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department began offering schools and colleges a grant to train senior mental health leads in October 2021. A list of schools and colleges receiving a senior mental health lead training grant is published and updated throughout the year. This list is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions. In the 2021/22 financial year, 15 schools and colleges within the North Devon constituency applied for the senior mental health training grant. 8 schools and colleges applied for the grant in the 2022/23 financial year, totalling 23 grant applications to date. There were no grant applications in this constituency for Q1 and Q2 of this financial year (2023/24).
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendation that the Government should consider the introduction of escalating penalties for repeat traffic offences made in the Road Justice report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking in September 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No such assessment has been made.