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Written Question
Business: Finance
Thursday 17th October 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much of the the £15 million Brexit readiness fund has been disbursed to businesses; and in which sectors those businesses were.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

The Business Readiness Fund was set up to help to prepare businesses for leaving the EU on 31 October. £10.4M has been approved across 133 successful bids, with just under £8M already paid to Business Representative Organisations. Applications have spanned a wide range of sectors (including manufacturing, retail and life sciences) and are from across the UK, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.


Written Question
Electricity: Northern Ireland
Thursday 17th October 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of Northern Ireland remaining in the Single Electricity Market on the UK's membership of the European Court of Justice.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

Maintaining security of electricity supply in Northern Ireland is a priority for this Government. We have undertaken significant work, and prepared legislation, in order to ensure that technical, operational and legal arrangements are in place to seek to maintain the Single Electricity Market whatever the circumstances. We recognise the need to have in place a common set of rules across the Single Electricity Market that govern the arrangement. The exact nature of these is still to be agreed as part of the negotiations.

Once the UK leaves the EU it will no longer participate in or contribute to the EU institutions including the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Only Member States of the EU can nominate candidates to be appointed as judges in the CJEU.


Written Question
Manufacturing Industries: Northern Ireland
Tuesday 8th October 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions her Department has had with Manufacturing Northern Ireland on preparations for (a) the UK leaving the EU without a deal and (b) the UK leaving the EU under the Prime Minister’s proposals announced on 3 October 2019.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

Ministers and officials from BEIS have engaged extensively with manufacturing businesses. We have stepped up efforts to ensure businesses across the UK, including in Northern Ireland, are prepared to leave the EU on 31 October, through enhanced national communication and engagement campaigns. Get Ready Roadshow events took place in Derry/Londonderry on 7 October and in Belfast on 8 October. Through the Business Readiness Fund, funding has been allocated for actions specifically delivered and targeted in Northern Ireland – in addition to UK wide applications covering Northern Ireland.


Written Question
Brexit
Monday 7th October 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what sectors his Department plans to prioritise for support in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

The Department is maintaining efforts to ensure businesses across the UK are ready to leave the EU on 31 October. We continue to robustly assess the potential impact of no-deal and are engaging widely with businesses across all sectors and meeting regularly with business representative organisations and trade associations. HMRC has also put into place funding for training that helps businesses to complete customs declarations and processes and has launched a trader helpline to answer border related questions

The Business Readiness Fund makes up to £15M available to support Business Representative Organisations as they help to prepare businesses for leaving the EU on 31 October. As of 1 October, BEIS has approved 69 bids from business representative organisations. Further applications are still in the process of being reviewed. Applications have spanned a wide range of sectors and are from across the UK. We continue to encourage bids until applications close on 7 October.

In addition, we have secured £1.3 million central funding which we are directing towards targeted sector-specific engagement across the UK through sector teams to complement the Business Readiness Fund and Public Information Campaign.


Written Question
Fuel Poverty: Sutton
Wednesday 4th September 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate she has made of the number of households in the London Borough of Sutton in fuel poverty in each year since 2015.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

The table below shows the number and proportion of households living in fuel poverty in the London Borough of Sutton, from 2015 to 2017. The 2018 data will be published in summer 2020.

2015

2016

2017

Estimated number of households in fuel poverty in Sutton

6,000

7,100

7,300

Proportion of households in fuel poverty in Sutton (%)

7.5

8.6

9.1

Proportion of households in fuel poverty in England (%)

11.0

11.1

10.9

Household figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.

The latest sub-regional fuel poverty statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-sub-regional-statistics


Written Question
Renewable Energy
Tuesday 30th July 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government has taken to ensure diversity of renewable energy sources as part of its goal to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

The Government has made significant progress in decarbonising the electricity sector. Around a third (33%) of the electricity generated in 2018 came from renewables, up from 29.3% in 2017.

Support provided to renewables through a range of policies such as the Renewables Obligation, the Feed-in Tariff, and Contracts for Difference has resulted in a diverse mix of renewable technologies. This includes wind, solar, hydro, bioenergy and more.

In order to meet our net-zero ambitions, we will continue to support the roll out of new renewables generation. We announced last year our intention to hold CfD allocation rounds around every 2 years which could see 1-2 gigawatts of new offshore wind every year in the 2020s.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Brexit
Wednesday 10th July 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what preparations his Department is making for the UK leaving the EU without an agreement; and how much funding has been allocated to those preparations.

Answered by Chris Skidmore

As a responsible Government, we’ve been preparing to minimise any disruption in the event of no deal.

HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as £412m over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Autumn Statement 2016); £286m of additional funding for 2017/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 2017/18); over £1.5 billion for 2018/19 (Supplementary Estimates 2018/19); and over £2 billion for 2019/20 (Main Estimates 2019/20).

This funding is to cover all exit scenarios and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU. Work on no-deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other EU exit work, given the significant overlap in plans in many cases.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Sick Leave
Wednesday 22nd May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in his Department; and what the cost was to his Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The number of employees in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) during the calendar year of 2018 who were absent due to mental health reasons, including stress was 59, this represented 1.5% of the total workforce. The proportion of sickness absence related to mental health reasons, including stress, was 23% of the overall sickness absence for the department for the same time period.

The estimated cost to the department over this period for employees taking sickness absence, is estimated at £1,421,738.30.

BEIS is committed to supporting the wellbeing of its staff, including helping them to manage stress in the workplace, and has a Wellbeing Strategy that includes a specific focus on supporting good mental health in its employees. This strategy is based in part on the Civil Service Health and Wellbeing Strategy that also includes the promotion of good mental health for all as one of its five priorities. Through a programme of wellbeing events and speakers, a growing cohort of mental health first aiders, promotion and signposting of the employee assistance programme, and e-learning packages for staff on stress, resilience and wellbeing, the Department has seen continued awareness and engagement on wellbeing and good mental health.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Brexit
Friday 17th May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many staff in his Department who were transferred or seconded to work (a) in other departments or (b) on other departmental briefs on preparations for the UK to leave the EU, have since returned to his Department.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

BEIS has a significant EU Exit portfolio and as such has not transferred or seconded staff to work on EU Exit in, or on behalf of, other Departments.


Written Question
Carbon Capture and Storage: Technology
Wednesday 8th May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

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 effect on the environment of carbon capture technology.

Answered by Claire Perry

The Government believes that carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) has the potential to play an important role in meeting the UK’s climate targets. CCUS can add value to the economy and help tackle hard to decarbonise sectors.

Our CCUS Action Plan is designed to progress CCUS in the UK, including enabling the UK’s first CCUS facility to be operational from the mid-2020s. CCUS is also likely to play an important role in achieving our Industrial Clusters Mission, creating the world’s first net-zero industrial cluster by 2040.

In progressing CCUS, the UK has already established a robust regulatory framework for CCUS, with regulations applying to licensing, environmental inspection and CO2 storage, operation and monitoring activities. This means that any CCUS project will need to comply with a rigorous health and safety assessment and require permits and approval from relevant environment agencies, the Health and Safety Executive and the Oil and Gas Authority.