Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of a zero-carbon electricity by 2030 target on (c) consumer bills, (b) energy security and (c) temporary interruptions in electricity supply.
Answered by Graham Stuart
It is the Government's ambition to achieve fully decarbonised electricity by 2035, subject to security of supply. The Government is focused on delivering the policies and programmes which support this goal, while maintaining a secure, reliable and low cost energy system.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department's policies of trends in the level of corporate (a) borrowing and (b) saving in each sector of the economy in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government considers a variety of factors to understand the health of the UK corporate sector and inform economic analysis and policymaking. This includes monitoring official data, internal economic modelling and regular engagement with firms and business groups.
As part of this, HM Treasury monitors aggregate and sectoral trends in corporate lending and deposits, including via the use of Bank of England data.
The Government will continue to monitor trends in corporate saving and borrowing to inform policy making and its assessment of corporate health.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what financial support is available to bowls clubs in England.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Supporting grassroots sport is a key Government priority and we recognise the positive impact participating in sport can have on health and wellbeing, as well as the benefits that sport clubs have on local communities.
Since 2019, Sport England has invested more than £8.6 million into bowls, including over £19,000 in the East Devon constituency.
Bowls clubs looking for funding up to £15,000 can apply for the Sport England small grants programme. Further information on this can be found at - https://www.sportengland.org/funds-and-campaigns/our-funds/small-grants-programme
We appreciate that some bowls clubs may be struggling with rising energy costs. That is why we announced the £18 billion Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) in September last year. The EBRS was always time-limited, and has now been replaced with the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS). Under the EBDS, bowls clubs will continue to receive discounts on their gas and electricity bills during the 12-month period from April 2023 to March 2024.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the Government plans to respond to the Law Commission’s recommendations relating to National Trust leaseholders, published on 21 July 2020 in the report entitled Leasehold home ownership: buying your freehold or extending your lease, HC584 of Session 2019-21.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed to creating a fairer and more transparent housing system that works for everyone. Leasehold reform supports our mission to level up homeownership by addressing the power imbalance at the heart of the leasehold system.
In 2017 the Government asked the Law Commission to review existing leasehold legislation. The Law Commission's findings, published in 2020, made clear that under the current system too many leaseholders find the process for extending their lease or buying their freehold too complex, lacking transparency and prohibitively expensive. The Law Commission made a number of recommendations and the government will respond to these, including those relating to National Trust leaseholders, in due course.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what legislative steps he plans to take to ensure National Trust leaseholders can extend their leases; and in what circumstances those leases would be extendable.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed to creating a fairer and more transparent housing system that works for everyone. Leasehold reform supports our mission to level up homeownership by addressing the power imbalance at the heart of the leasehold system.
In 2017 the Government asked the Law Commission to review existing leasehold legislation. The Law Commission's findings, published in 2020, made clear that under the current system too many leaseholders find the process for extending their lease or buying their freehold too complex, lacking transparency and prohibitively expensive. The Law Commission made a number of recommendations and the government will respond to these, including those relating to National Trust leaseholders, in due course.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking through the tax system to help support small cider producers.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Government is introducing comprehensive alcohol duty reforms from 1 August this year, which will support small cider producers through the introduction of the new Small Producer Relief, providing a tapered duty discount which helps small beer and cider producers to grow and thrive.
The Government is also providing a duty discount on draught cider sold in pubs, whilst equalising the treatment of fruit ciders with beer. Further, ciders between 3.5% and 8.5% ABV will continue to benefit from a lower duty rate than other categories of alcohol to support their transition to the new duty system.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the reporting of storm overflows in real time will be (a) consistent, (b) transparent, (c) accessible and (d) readily understood by the public.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Act places new monitoring duties on the water industry to significantly improve transparency. It requires companies to make discharge data available in near real time to the public and to monitor water quality upstream and downstream of their assets.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of sustainable urban drainage schemes that are (a) in full operation and (b) under construction in England.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The number of sustainable urban drainage schemes that are in full operation or under construction in England is not held by my department.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s policy paper entitled Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, published on 26 August 2022, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce combined sewer overflow discharges in (a) inland and (b) coastal waters.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction plan will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years – to significantly reduce sewage discharges.
Our plan prioritises areas at risk of the greatest ecological harm first, to ensure we have the biggest impact, as quickly as possible. Our targets will ensure that no water body in England should fail to achieve good ecological status due to storm overflow discharges. We have prioritised action for storm overflows discharging near or into inland and coastal bathing waters. By 2035, water companies must significantly reduce harmful pathogens from storm overflows discharging into and near designated inland and coastal bathing waters.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report by Ofwat entitled Water Company Performance Report 2021-22, published in December 2022, whether her Department plans to take steps to ensure that underspend is invested by water companies into reducing sewage discharges.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ofwat’s findings that water companies are not spending investment assigned to make service improvements is completely unacceptable. Overall, water companies have only spent 61% of their forecasted wastewater enhancement cost allowance during 2020-22, which has resulted in delaying crucial wastewater infrastructure to improve water resilience and the environment.
Yorkshire Water and South West Water have only spent 20% and 39% of their allowance, respectively. The SoS and I met with the CEOs of these two companies in December to discuss their performance.
I am aware that the COVID pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have impacted on supply chains, but other water companies are exceeding their spend and I expect all water companies to urgently get their spending back on track and implement the upgrades to water and wastewater infrastructure they have been funded to deliver and that customers rightly expect. I will continue to meet with the CEOs of underperforming companies to monitor their progress.
Ofwat, as the economic regulator for the water industry, has been clear that where these expectations are not met and companies are failing to comply with their obligations, they will take action, including enforcement action where warranted.