Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
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 ensure that energy costs are competitive to support manufacturing industries.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government is working hard to ensure energy costs are not a barrier to growth and investment in the UK.
We have put in place a package of measures to alleviate the impact of electricity policy costs passed through in energy intensive businesses electricity bills. Due to this action, by 2020, this Government will have reduced the impacts of energy and climate change policies passed through in energy bills for the most energy intensive businesses by 80%.
To date, we have paid 105 companies including nine steel companies a total of £294m to address these costs. A number of energy intensive sectors are also exempted from the costs of the Climate Change Levy.
Additionally the Government is working closely with eight key energy intensive sectors to support energy efficiency and decarbonisation measures to help reduce energy costs, improve their competitiveness and cut emissions.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
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 in response to the result of the EU referendum to ensure that investment in the Hartlepool steel pipe mills is made.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Government’s top priority for steel has not changed in the light of the EU referendum. The process for selling Tata Steel’s remaining UK assets remains ongoing and we continue to work closely with Tata and potential bidders so that we can secure a sustainable future.
My officials have also met with parties interested in acquiring Tata’s steel pipe mills in Hartlepool, to explain what the Government is doing to support the UK steel sector.
More widely, we are committed to working closely with the UK steel sector through the Steel Council.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he plans to take to prevent the dumping of Chinese steel in the event of the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The UK remains a full member of the EU until we formally exit and all rights and obligations under the EU, including trade defence measures, still apply.
We will continue to support the EU’s trade agenda, including tackling unfair trade and continue to do all we can to support a sustainable UK steel industry.
The Cabinet Office has established a new unit to oversee arrangements for the UK’s exit from the EU and they will consider issues such as the UK establishing its own trade defence measures on exit from the EU.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
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 ensure that the investment in the long-products steel works in Teesside will be secure in the event of the UK exiting the EU.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Government’s top priority for steel has not changed in the light of the EU referendum. The process for selling Tata Steel’s remaining UK assets remains ongoing and we continue to work closely with Tata and potential bidders so that we can secure a sustainable future.
More widely, we are committed to working closely with the UK steel sector through the Steel Council to maximize the opportunities and mitigate the potential impacts. On 28 June, my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and I held a special round table of business leaders, including the Chair of the Steel Council, to explore post referendum issues.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the report by Lord Heseltine, entitled Tees Valley: opportunity unlimited, published in June 2016, recommendation 6.6.7, whether he plans to devolve responsibility for the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers to the Tees Valley Combined Authority.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) is available until the end of the 2016/17 academic year to incentivise smaller employers to offer apprenticeships. The AGE grant will be devolved to The Tees Valley Combined Authority from this August. They will be free to vary the criteria associated with the grant (e.g. size and sector of business) to meet local needs.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the implications for Government policy on carbon capture and storage (CCS) are of the decision not to proceed with the CCS Commercialisation Commission.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has not closed the door on carbon capture and storage (CCS) and believes it has a potentially important role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK. We are clear that CCS is currently too expensive and its costs must come down. We continue to work with wider industry to help develop CCS cost efficiently in the UK, including through the joint Government-industry CCS Development Forum, which I co-chair. We will set out our approach to CCS in due course, informed by the findings from Lord Oxburgh’s CCS Advisory Group.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
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 increase accessibility to university buildings for disabled students.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone with the potential has the opportunity to benefit from higher education, irrespective of their background or mode of learning. In the last academic year we saw record entry rates to higher education, including among those from disadvantaged backgrounds
Higher Education Institutions have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support their students, including those with disabilities. They have a clear legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people to ensure they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled students.
To support Higher Education (HE) providers to prepare for the changes to Disabled Students’ Allowances that come into effect from academic year 2016/17, the Department has supported the establishment of a sector-led group ofstakeholders. The group’s focus is to communicate with senior leaders of HE providers, to help provide information about institutions’ responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students, and to encourage HE providers to develop inclusive learning environments.
In addition, universities expect to spend more than £745 million through access agreements agreed with the Director of Fair Access on measures to improve access and success for students from disadvantaged groups, including disabled students - up significantly from £404 million in 2009.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that universities offer disabled students levels of support which take account of recent changes to the disabled students' allowance.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone with the potential has the opportunity to benefit from higher education, irrespective of their background or mode of learning. In the last academic year we saw record entry rates to higher education, including among those from disadvantaged backgrounds
Higher Education Institutions have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support their students, including those with disabilities. They have a clear legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people to ensure they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled students.
To support Higher Education (HE) providers to prepare for the changes to Disabled Students’ Allowances that come into effect from academic year 2016/17, the Department has supported the establishment of a sector-led group ofstakeholders. The group’s focus is to communicate with senior leaders of HE providers, to help provide information about institutions’ responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students, and to encourage HE providers to develop inclusive learning environments.
In addition, universities expect to spend more than £745 million through access agreements agreed with the Director of Fair Access on measures to improve access and success for students from disadvantaged groups, including disabled students - up significantly from £404 million in 2009.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department has taken to support the Teesside Carbon Capture Storage Collective since the announcement of the reduction in government funds in that sector.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Energy and Climate Change continues to work closely with Teesside, including through providing funding to the Collective for further work on how Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), carbon usage, hydrogen production and other technologies could reduce carbon emissions from industrial processes.
This support follows £1m previously awarded to Teesside as part of the 2013 Tees Valley City Deal, to undertake engineering and commercial studies into the scope for industrial CCS for the Tees Valley industrial cluster, and the October 2015 Tees Valley Devolution Deal, which committed DECC to work with Tees Valley to explore how it can continue to develop its industrial CCS proposals.
Lord Heseltine’s recent report “Tees Valley: Opportunity Unlimited” welcomed the support that the Government is continuing to provide on industrial CCS in the Tees Valley area.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if his Department will make an assessment of the effect of the withdrawal of funding from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills on the Government's analysis of skills shortages in the North East.
Answered by Nick Boles
In the context of needing to make savings in non-participation budgets to allow the core adult skills participation budgets to be protected in cash terms, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has consulted the Devolved Administrations and other users of labour market information on future research priorities.
Following these discussions, we have identified the significance of the Employer Skills Survey, the Employer Perspectives Survey and the LMI (Labour Market Information) for All Portal and decided that these products will be maintained. We are currently working with the Commission to transfer the management of these to BIS, and we will work users on how information from these surveys will be disseminated in the future including the provision of regional and local information.