Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to develop deep-water turbines as a means of producing clean energy in the UK.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Offshore wind is a success story for the UK. Government support has enabled investment, cost reduction and building of the supply chain across the UK. This support has resulted in two world leading floating offshore wind demonstration projects being developed in the UK.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
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 encourage universities and research institutions to conduct plant-based research to improve food security.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The UK’s main public funders of food-related research are working together through the Global Food Security programme to meet the challenge of providing the world’s growing population with access to safe, affordable and nutritious food, all of the time and in ways the planet can sustain into the future.
Government policy on research funding is governed by the Haldane principle. The principle states that decisions on individual research proposals are best taken by researchers themselves and therefore competitive funding for science research is allocated by the UK Research Councils on the basis of the scientific quality of the proposals.
We are increasing research and development investment by £4.7 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21. This equates to an extra £2 billion per year by 2020-21 and is an increase of around 20% to total government R&D spending, more than any increase in any parliament since 1979. This R&D investment funding is additional to the protection of science resource funding that was announced at the spending review in autumn 2015.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
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 has taken to support the retention of non-UK nationals who work as researchers in the agricultural and food security sector.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said, the UK must remain one of the best places in the world for science and innovation. We value the contribution of overseas researchers and will look to develop a future immigration system that works for all. The UK remains fully open to researchers from across the EU. We are also open to talent from the rest of the world with a visa system that provides a range of options for attracting top researchers from around the globe.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what funding his Department currently provides to support research on food security.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The UK’s main public funders of food-related research are working together through the Global Food Security programme to meet the challenge of providing the world’s growing population with access to safe, affordable and nutritious food, all of the time and in ways the planet can sustain into the future.
Government policy on research funding is governed by the Haldane principle. The principle states that decisions on individual research proposals are best taken by researchers themselves and therefore competitive funding for science research is allocated by the UK Research Councils on the basis of the scientific quality of the proposals.
We are increasing research and development investment by £4.7 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21. This equates to an extra £2 billion per year by 2020-21 and is an increase of around 20% to total government R&D spending, more than any increase in any parliament since 1979. This R&D investment funding is additional to the protection of science resource funding that was announced at the spending review in autumn 2015.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department have had with (i) businesses and (ii) registered charities in each of the last five years.
Answered by Margot James
Records of all Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website at the following links:
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy&publication_type=transparency-data
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bis-quarterly-publications-april-to-june-2012
Department for Energy and Climate Change
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-meeting-with-external-organisations
Information about meetings between officials, businesses and charities are not centrally held and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff in his Department have been seconded from (i) businesses and (ii) charities.
Answered by Margot James
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy currently has 44 staff seconded from (a) businesses and 11 from (b) a charity.
We don’t hold centralised data on how many are (a) full time and (b) part time.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
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 effect of the UK leaving the EU on British businesses that are part of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Answered by Nick Hurd
There are no immediate changes to UK participation in, and compliance with, the EU Emissions Trading System and we continue to engage in the negotiations on reforms to the System. We are considering the UK’s future participation in the EU ETS as part of delivering a wider settlement in the best interests of the UK, in consultation with business and other stakeholders.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to improve access to parental leave for self-employed people.
Answered by Nick Boles
In July 2015 my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister appointed Julie Deane OBE to look at what more could be done to support the self-employed. Julie Deane’s report ‘Self-Employment Review’ was published on 14th February and can be viewed at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/500358/ind-16-2-self-employment-review.pdf
The Government is reviewing her recommendations in regard to this area carefully.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on the effect of the Government's policy on biomass on the availability of UK-produced wood supplies to UK industries.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has held no specific discussions with my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on the effect of the Government’s policy on biomass on the availability of UK-produced wood supplies to UK industries.
BIS is coordinating discussions between senior leaders in the industrial biotechnology, synthetic biology, chemicals, medicines manufacturing and agri-tech sectors, to consider how these industries can work together, alongside the UK’s excellent science and technology base, to build a strong and growing bioeconomy. These discussions are likely to include the availability of biomass feedstocks and their impact on specific sectors.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will undertake an assessment of the effect on the availability of UK-sourced wood supplies of (a) 50MW and under and (b) over 50MW wood-burning biomass plants.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department already monitors the use of wood for fuel in the UK through two means:
Volumes of UK wood being used for electricity and CHP generation are expected to remain at a fairly constant level, at around 1.3-1.4million oven dried tonnes per year. There is no indication that use of UK-sourced biomass for electricity is causing resource constraints for other UK wood users (such as the wood products industry).
The conclusions from our most recent analysis1 reinforce what we already understood: that while biomass generation is increasing, the demand for feedstock is being met mostly from imports.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/woodfuel-disclosure-survey