Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the proposed Whitehaven coal mine.
Answered by Greg Hands
Planning is a quasi-judicial process, and solely a matter for my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Ministers in BEIS have had no discussions with him on the proposed mine at Whitehaven.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 made of the implications for his policies of the International Energy Agency's findings that coal should be kept in the ground.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government has committed to phasing out unabated coal generation in Great Britain by October 2024. Coal’s share of our electricity supply has already declined significantly in recent years – from almost 40% in 2012 to less than 2% in 2020.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 potential to use hydrogen in the production of steel.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy commits the Government to work with the Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’. Hydrogen-based steelmaking, Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), and electrification are some of the technological approaches being examined as part of this process.
Published in October, the Net Zero Strategy committed to provide further support for research and innovation to enable the fuel switch to low carbon hydrogen on industrial sites, such as integrated steelworks. This will be delivered through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and initiatives led by the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 fund a clean steel demonstrator project.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Government recognises the vital role that the sector plays across the UK to benefit our economy. We will continue to work with the sector to support its decarbonisation.
In March 2021, the Government published the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy in which we committed to working with the Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035 and the business environment necessary to support the transition. We will provide further information in due course.
Published in October, the Net Zero Strategy committed to provide further support for research and innovation to enable the fuel switch to low carbon hydrogen on industrial sites, such as integrated steelworks. This will be delivered through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and initiatives led by the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the transition to renewable heating systems will have on (a) UK grid capacity and (b) the North West’s grid capacity.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
To achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, we will need to decarbonise virtually all heat in buildings. Government analysis indicates that heat pumps are likely to play an important role in this transition, which is why my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister announced our ambition to reach 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028. In combination with an increase in electric vehicle deployment, this is likely to increase demand for electricity.
Ensuring the adequacy of the electricity network is the responsibility of electricity network companies, and they are incentivised to do so through the regulatory framework set out by Ofgem, the independent regulator. Electricity distribution network operators (DNOs) submitted their draft business plans for the next price control (RIIO ED2), which will run from 2023-28, on 1 July. Final draft business plans submissions are expected to be made by DNOs in December of this year. As part of this, DNOs, including Electricity North West who are the licensed operator for the distribution network in the North West, will include forecasts for the uptake of renewable heating systems and how they plan to ready the network for these technologies.
A new Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan, developed jointly by BEIS and Ofgem, will be published shortly. The plan will set out how deploying low carbon technologies, including heat pumps, in a smart and flexible way can reduce the requirement for large increases in generation capacity and support the balancing of the electricity system. This approach benefits all electricity system users by reducing overall system costs and carbon emissions, while also supporting system stability.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will set out his plans (a) to accelerate the uptake in heat and ground pumps and (b) for the roll out other renewable heating sources.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
As announced in the Ten-Point Plan, we aim to install 600,000 hydronic heat pumps per year by 2028. We are putting together a comprehensive policy package to support this ambition, including targeted regulatory, market-based and public investment measures.
These measures include the Future Homes Standard that will ensure new homes are built with high levels of energy efficiency and low carbon heating from 2025, the Clean Heat Grant scheme, launching in 2022, and a new market-based policy putting industry at the heart of growing the heat pump market.
Heat pumps have already been proven to work at scale in buildings, delivering effective heating with lower emissions than fossil fuel heating. However, there are a range of potential low carbon heating solutions, including hydrogen, heat networks and biomethane that could help deliver our net zero target. We will set out further details on how we accelerate uptake of heat pumps and our approach to other low carbon heating technologies in our forthcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many businesses failed in each month of the 2007-08 financial crisis.
Answered by Paul Scully
Monthly data on business closures during the 2007-2008 financial crisis are not available.
Data on total annual business closures have been provided in the table below, showing annual numbers of business closures between 2006 and 2010.
Table: Annual number of business closures, 2006 to 2010, all registered businesses
Year | Number of business closures |
2006 | 207,000 |
2007 | 224,000 |
2008 | 223,000 |
2009 | 277,000 |
2010 | 250,000 |
Source: Office for National Statistics ‘Business Demography, UK: 2011’
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 has made an estimate of the number of businesses which have failed in each month since April 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
Monthly data on business closures since April 2020 are not available.
Quarterly data on business closures since April 2020 can be provided.
The table below contains this information, along with numbers of business closures in each quarter of 2019 and quarter 1 2020 for reference.
Table: Quarterly UK business closures, 2019 to 2020, all registered businesses
Quarter and Year | Number of business closures |
Q1 2019 | 85,260 |
Q2 2019 | 101,505 |
Q3 2019 | 83,145 |
Q4 2019 | 77,815 |
Q1 2020 | 120,235 |
Q2 2020 | 93,055 |
Q3 2020 | 76,265 |
Q4 2020 | 106,400 |
|
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Source: Office for National Statistics 'Business demography, quarterly experimental statistics, UK'
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 and incentivise businesses to embrace innovative green technologies and to invest in green jobs, skills and training in the North West.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
We are determined to seize the opportunities of the net zero transition, which by one estimate could support up to 2 million green jobs by 2030 across all regions of the UK. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan will create long-term advantage for the UK in low-carbon technologies and services. Investment in the green economy across sectors including offshore wind, nuclear, low carbon heating, CCUS and clean hydrogen will benefit regions across the UK.
We will bring forward the Local Recovery and Devolution White Paper, detailing how the Government will build a sustainable economic recovery across the country. We have also launched the Green Jobs Taskforce to advise what support is needed for people in transitioning industries. The taskforce will conclude its work in spring 2021, with the actions feeding into our Net Zero Strategy to be published later in the year.
The Government’s actions are delivering results in the North West. We have invested in excess of £4m of the Local Growth Fund in Cumbria for developing skills in higher and further education, working alongside employers to support high quality jobs in new and emerging sustainable and green technologies. This includes support for Kendal College on training for future jobs such as electric vehicle maintenance, with over 600 apprentices supporting employers in the green economy in South Lakeland.