Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 work with industry throughout the development of the UK Conformity Assessed marking system to ensure that aligned messaging on reassurance can be provided even whilst the longer-term uncertainty remains.
Answered by Dean Russell
The Government will continue to take a pragmatic approach in developing the UK’s regulatory framework to ensure it works for businesses, while maintaining high standards of product safety to protect consumers. In order to achieve this, it is vital we continue to work closely with industry.
The Government also continues to welcome any feedback, comments, and suggestions from industry on any challenges they are facing, to understand how they can be best supported
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the report by BBC Panorama on 3 October 2022, regarding the type of wood products selected for burning at Drax power station, if he will make an assessment of how far Drax complies with sustainability criteria for biomass energy.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government only supports sustainable biomass and generators only receive subsidies for biomass that complies with strict sustainability criteria.
The regulator, Ofgem, is responsible for auditing the sustainability of biomass used by biomass electricity generators who receive support under the Renewables Obligation and has a process in place for this. As is routine, Ofgem is establishing whether the sustainability criteria have been met by the generator.
Sustainability information is publicly available on Ofgem’s website, with the latest dataset accessible here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/biomass-sustainability-dataset-2020-21.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 take steps to phase out North Sea oil and gas developments.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK still needs oil and gas for heating, cooking, transport and electricity generation during the energy transition. In meeting net zero, the UK’s use of both these fuels is set to reduce significantly.
The production of natural gas from the UK Continental Shelf creates under half the greenhouse gas of imported Liquefied Natural Gas. Turning off the UK’s domestic source of oil and gas now would put energy security and British jobs and industries at risk. Therefore, the North Sea Transition Authority plans to launch another licensing round this autumn, taking into account the forthcoming climate compatibility checkpoint.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding his Department made available for neurological research in each year from 2012-13 to 2020-21.
Answered by George Freeman
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funds a variety of research within this broad-ranging area. The UKRI Gateway https://gtr.ukri.org/ provides data on publicly funded research and innovation which is searchable by year and subject area.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department plans to respond to the letter of 25 February 2022 to the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation from the hon. Member for Ealing, Southall.
Answered by George Freeman
I have been in touch with the hon. Member on 20 April 2022 to organise a meeting.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 ministerial colleagues on increasing spending on dementia research.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government will invest at least £375 million in neurodegenerative disease research over the next five years to fund projects into a range of diseases including dementia.
The Government is working to finalise outcomes from the Spending Review and to identify ways to boost dementia research. We will be setting out our plans on dementia for England for future years in 2022. This will include our ambitions for dementia research and boosting dementia research funding.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 increase the proportion of energy generated by renewable sources; and by what year he estimates that the UK will generate all of its energy from renewable sources.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is the Government’s flagship scheme for supporting new renewable electricity generation projects in Great Britain. The latest round aims to secure more capacity than the three previous rounds combined by supporting an expanded number of renewable technologies including offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, tidal and floating offshore wind. The next CfD round will be brought forward to March 2023, and future rounds will run annually from now on. These steps will help drive forward the deployment of renewable power. The Government has committed to fully decarbonise the electricity system by 2035, subject to security of supply.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 is taking steps to legislate for more energy efficient homes.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government remains committed to the Clean Growth Strategy ambition to upgrade as many homes as possible to EPC Band C by 2035, where practical, cost-effective and affordable.
In the Net Zero Strategy, the department committed to consult on phasing in higher minimum standards across all sectors to meet this ambition.
The Government has already consulted on raising the energy performance standard in domestic private rented sector to EPC Band C and how mortgage lenders could support homeowners in making upgrades. The Government will publish its response in due course.
The Government will then seek primary powers to enable a long-term regulatory framework to improve the energy performance of homes.
Huge progress is already being made to increase the energy efficiency of UK homes. In 2008, just 14% had an Energy Performance of C or above, however it is now at 46% and rising.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the value of Russian energy imported to the UK for the latest twelve month period for which data is available.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK and its international partners stand united in condemning the Russian state’s outrageous attack on Ukraine as a clear breach of international law and the UN Charter.
The UK is not dependent on Russian gas. In 2021, less than 4% of the UK’s gas supply was Russian gas, via liquified natural gas imports.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 £20 billion in funding for research and development announced in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 will be allocated to TB treatments and vaccines.
Answered by George Freeman
Following the Spending Review, BEIS is currently working to set detailed R&D budgets through to 2024/25. Further details of how this funding will be allocated will be announced in due course.