Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an estimate of the number of small and medium-sized businesses in (a) 2010, (b) 2015, (c) 2020 and (d) the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Estimated number of private sector small and medium-sized businesses at the start of 2010, 2015, 2020 and 2023 (the latest year for which data is available) are provided in the table below.
Table: Estimated number of private sector small and medium-sized business by year
| Number of businesses |
2010 | 4,476,700 |
2015 | 5,394,300 |
2020 | 5,972,600 |
2023 | 5,547,100 |
Source: Business Population Estimates
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how (a) much finance was and (b) many loans were provided to businesses by the British Business Bank; and how many and what proportion of these loans were provided to small businesses.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
At 2022/23 the British Business Bank was supporting £12.4bn of finance to 90,201 small businesses across the UK through the Bank’s 220 delivery partners. Finance supported by the Bank is intended for small and medium businesses, as defined in the Companies Act.
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, how much (a) private sector investment and (b) public sector funding there has been for (i) onshore wind, (ii) offshore wind and (iii) solar power in each financial year since 2009-10.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
Based on data from BloombergNEF, total investment into UK offshore wind, onshore wind and solar PV was £143bn over 2009-2023 (converted to real 2023 prices, nearest £bn). For these technologies, a record £19bn was in 2023, helping the renewable share of total UK electricity generation increase from 7% in 2010 to nearly 50% in 2023.
In the UK, renewables receive levy-funded support through legacy schemes (Renewables Obligation [RO] and Feed-in Tariffs [FiTs]), and our Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism. The OBR regularly publish estimates of levy spend for the prior financial year across the RO and CfD schemes, and Ofgem publishes estimates for FiTs, aggregated for all renewables. For the CfD scheme only, the LCCC publish data at a technology and plant level.
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 information her Department holds on the year in which the highest level of private sector investment into renewable sources of power generation was recorded.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
Based on data from BloombergNEF, total investment into UK offshore wind, onshore wind and solar PV was £143bn over 2009-2023 (converted to real 2023 prices, nearest £bn). For these technologies, a record £19bn was in 2023, helping the renewable share of total UK electricity generation increase from 7% in 2010 to nearly 50% in 2023.
In the UK, renewables receive levy-funded support through legacy schemes (Renewables Obligation [RO] and Feed-in Tariffs [FiTs]), and our Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism. The OBR regularly publish estimates of levy spend for the prior financial year across the RO and CfD schemes, and Ofgem publishes estimates for FiTs, aggregated for all renewables. For the CfD scheme only, the LCCC publish data at a technology and plant level.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the revenue that will be raised by the Energy Profits Levy by March 2029.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
Forecasts for government revenues from oil and gas production, including for Energy Profits Levy, are provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Their most recent published forecast, provided for Spring Budget 2024 on 6 March, is available on the OBR website at the following link https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2024/.
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, if she will make an estimate of the proportion of total energy demand will be met by (a) oil, (b) gas and (c) nuclear in (i) 2025, (ii) 2030, (iii) 2035, (iv) 2040, (v) 2045 and (vi) 2050.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
The table below sets out shares for oil, gas and nuclear consistent with a pathway to meeting the UK’s 6th Carbon Budget.
| 2022 | 2025 | 2030 | 2035 |
Gas (% of total energy) | 38% | 37% | 33% | 28% |
Oil (% of total energy) | 38% | 36% | 34% | 23% |
Electricity from nuclear (% of total energy) | 2% | 2% | 2% | 4% |
Electricity from nuclear (% of electricity) | 15% | 15% | 10% | 13% |
Beyond 2035, oil and gas use will need to continue to decline but will remain an important part of the energy mix and even when reaching net zero in 2050 oil and gas (combined) could still provide around a quarter of the UK's energy needs. The Government has set out an ambition for nuclear energy to provide up to around a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs by 2050 which would represent around 12% of expected total energy demand.
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 volume of gas was imported into the UK as liquefied natural gas in each of the last 20 years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
UK gas demand and imports of gas into the UK as liquified natural gas (LNG) in each of the last 20 years are published in Energy Trends Table 4.1.
LNG imports as a proportion of gas demand for each of the last 20 years can be derived from these data. Caution should be taken when inferring that imported LNG met demand due to the interconnected nature of gas pipeline infrastructure (e.g. LNG would be mixed with other gas in the network some of which is then exported).
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 proportion of gas demand was met by imports of liquefied natural gas in each of the last 20 years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
UK gas demand and imports of gas into the UK as liquified natural gas (LNG) in each of the last 20 years are published in Energy Trends Table 4.1.
LNG imports as a proportion of gas demand for each of the last 20 years can be derived from these data. Caution should be taken when inferring that imported LNG met demand due to the interconnected nature of gas pipeline infrastructure (e.g. LNG would be mixed with other gas in the network some of which is then exported).
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 estimate she has made of the levelised cost of electricity from hydrogen fired power stations that are due to be commissioned before 2030.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Electricity generation costs 2023 report published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero sets out the assumptions for a hydrogen-fired Combined Cycle Hydrogen Turbine (CCHT) power plant commissioned between 2025-2030. The cost of the electricity was stated as £111/MWh for a baseload CCHT commissioning in 2025 and £108/MWh for 2030.
Hydrogen to Power is an emerging technology and as such all figures are subject to change. We will continue to monitor and update cost estimates based on new evidence as it becomes available. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electricity-generation-costs-2023.
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 she has made of what (a) peak and (b) total electricity demand will be in (i) 2025, (ii) 2030, (iii) 2035, (iv) 2040, (v) 2045 and (vi) 2050.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Total demand and peak demand figures corresponding to the latest scenarios published in Annex O of the Energy and Emission Projections[1] are:
|
| 2025 | 2030 | 2035 | 2040 | 2045 | 2050 |
Total Demand (TWh) | Low | 309 | 362 | 449 | 482 | 535 | 580 |
| High | 310 | 363 | 483 | 563 | 656 | 771 |
Peak Demand (GW) | Low | 59 | 74 | 94 | 105 | 119 | 131 |
| High | 59 | 74 | 107 | 139 | 166 | 191 |
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-and-emissions-projections-2021-to-2040