To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Carbon Emissions: Certification Quality Marks
Monday 21st February 2022

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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 develop and promote an international kite mark scheme to show products manufactured using low-carbon materials and methods.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government plans to publish proposals related to low carbon labelling (such as kite marks) for manufactured products in the autumn. The supporting call for evidence Towards a market for low emissions industrial products is open for responses until 28 February[1].

The UK leads the Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative with India, which is a global coalition of public and private organisations working to standardise carbon assessments and design industry guidelines.

[1] Gov.uk. Towards a market for low emissions industrial products: call for evidence.


Written Question
Climate Change
Monday 29th November 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what parameters his Department are monitoring to determine the rate of climate change.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The HadCRUT5[1] global temperature series, produced by the Met Office, University of East Anglia and UK National Centre for Atmospheric Science, is the primary data set BEIS uses to assess the rate of climate change.

[1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut5/


Written Question
Small Businesses: Carbon Emissions
Friday 22nd October 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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 support SMEs operating in the UK to transition to net zero.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

This Department is taking many steps to encourage SMEs to transition to Net Zero and to support SMEs through the barriers which prevent the transition. These steps are detailed below.

Information and engagement

Ahead of COP26, BEIS has launched the Together for Our Planet Business Climate Leaders’ campaign, which has encouraged over 1,900 small and micro businesses across the UK to join the Race to Zero by making the SME Climate Commitment.

Addressing energy efficiency

In order to help SMEs overcome barriers to investing in energy efficiency we launched the Boosting Access for SMEs to Energy Efficiency innovation competition. The competition offered up to £6m to fund the development of new, innovative market solutions that can provide businesses with tailored energy efficiency advice, as well as simplifying the energy efficiency investment processes through the creation of one-stop-shop platforms.

Access to Finance

I have recently given the British Business Bank a new mission to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by supporting access to finance for smaller businesses. Between 2014 and the third quarter of 2020 a total of £160m has been invested into clean technology businesses by equity funds backed by the British Business Bank.

Small businesses can access the government grants available for plug-in vehicles which help reduce the up-front purchase price of electric vehicles. Eligible cars, costing less than £35,000, can receive a grant of £2,500. Small vans can receive up to £3,000 and large vans up to £6,000.


Written Question
Insolvency: Standards
Thursday 21st October 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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 identify potential failures in the insolvency industry; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a single regulator and ombudsman to oversee that industry.

Answered by Paul Scully

The Government is currently reviewing the arrangements for regulation of the insolvency profession and will shortly publish proposals for consultation.


Written Question
Banks
Wednesday 20th October 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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 merits of an exclusion order for regional mutual banks to allow those banks to scale up their offerings.

Answered by Paul Scully

The Government welcomes the efforts to establish regional mutual banks in the UK. The Government is also committed to seeing a highly competitive banking sector, working in the interests of all consumers and businesses across the country, and recognises the potential of regional mutual banks in achieving this goal. HM Treasury officials have been engaging with prospective mutual banks over challenges to their establishment.

The Government has the power to relax competition rules where there are exceptional and compelling reasons of public policy to do so. The Government does not use these powers lightly as under normal circumstances, a sector should be able to operate in a way that is compatible with competition law. We will consider requests for public policy exclusion orders where the exceptional and compelling reasons of public policy have been demonstrated.


Written Question
Concrete: Cement
Monday 6th September 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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 considering the use of incentives to encourage the use of concrete with lower cement content.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to set a net zero target in law, and our Nationally Determined Contribution to cut emissions by 78% by 2035 is the most ambitious in the world. Delivering on this target requires the deep decarbonisation of all sectors. The Government is setting incentives to ensure a smooth transition to net zero across industry, and we are working closely with the construction sector to reduce its emissions contribution.

In June, we published the National Procurement Policy Statement. This sets out the principles that all contracting authorities need to consider when procuring goods and services, and one of these is tackling climate change and reducing waste. The Government has also published Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/21 which requires suppliers bidding for major government contracts to commit to achieving net zero by 2050, and to provide emissions reporting.

In March, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) launched CO2nstructZero, a cross-industry decarbonisation programme. This prioritises development of innovative low-carbon materials including concrete, and it will advance low-carbon solutions for manufacturing production processes and distribution. The CLC will report regularly to Government on its progress against CO2nstructZero priorities.

In addition, BEIS funded the Industrial Fuel Switching Competition. The concrete and cement sectors are carrying out demonstrations of a 'zero carbon fuel mix' for cement kilns in 2021, funded by this programme. Further research funded by the BEIS Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator programme is enabling the sector to formulate and demonstrate new low carbon multi-component cements for the UK market. Through utilisation of new technologies and improved efficiency of infrastructure, the industry is set to deliver net zero concrete and cement products across all supply chains by 2050.


Written Question
Concrete
Monday 6th September 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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 considering the use of incentives to encourage the use of concrete with lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to set a net zero target in law, and our Nationally Determined Contribution to cut emissions by 78% by 2035 is the most ambitious in the world. Delivering on this target requires the deep decarbonisation of all sectors. The Government is setting incentives to ensure a smooth transition to net zero across industry, and we are working closely with the construction sector to reduce its emissions contribution.

In June, we published the National Procurement Policy Statement. This sets out the principles that all contracting authorities need to consider when procuring goods and services, and one of these is tackling climate change and reducing waste. The Government has also published Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/21 which requires suppliers bidding for major government contracts to commit to achieving net zero by 2050, and to provide emissions reporting.

In March, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) launched CO2nstructZero, a cross-industry decarbonisation programme. This prioritises development of innovative low-carbon materials including concrete, and it will advance low-carbon solutions for manufacturing production processes and distribution. The CLC will report regularly to Government on its progress against CO2nstructZero priorities.

In addition, BEIS funded the Industrial Fuel Switching Competition. The concrete and cement sectors are carrying out demonstrations of a 'zero carbon fuel mix' for cement kilns in 2021, funded by this programme. Further research funded by the BEIS Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator programme is enabling the sector to formulate and demonstrate new low carbon multi-component cements for the UK market. Through utilisation of new technologies and improved efficiency of infrastructure, the industry is set to deliver net zero concrete and cement products across all supply chains by 2050.


Written Question
Personal Care Services: Coronavirus
Thursday 15th April 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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 the Department’s guidance for close contact services in England is consistent with the latest evidence on covid-19 transmissibility; and what the evidential basis for advising against the provision of newspapers and magazines for clients is, as referenced in section 5.2 of that guidance.

Answered by Paul Scully

We continue to keep the Safer Working guidance under constant review and will update the guidance in line with new scientific evidence as it arises. Public Health England (PHE) and the Health and Safety Executive have advised that there is currently no scientific evidence to support changing the Safer Working guidance in light of the new variants.

PHE guidance states that Covid-19 spreads from person to person through small droplets, aerosols and through direct contact. Surfaces and belongings can also be contaminated with Covid-19 when people with the infection cough or sneeze or touch them. The risk of spread is greatest when people are close to each other, especially in poorly ventilated indoor spaces and when people spend a lot of time together in the same room.

Given that client waiting areas are high traffic with frequent contact on common surface areas, we recommend not providing shared reading materials to reduce transmission risk via surface contact. Individuals can bring their own reading materials that they have purchased but we advise businesses to not provide sharing copies due to the frequent change of hands.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 2nd February 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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 make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a crowdsourcing scheme for covid-19 vaccine acceleration ideas.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

At the start of the pandemic, the Government acted swiftly to establish the Vaccine Taskforce to ensure that the UK population has access to clinically effective and safe vaccines. Activity includes:

  • Securing early access to 407 million vaccines doses through agreements with seven separate vaccine developers.
  • Funding the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to deliver a range of 'rapid response' research to better understand and tackle COVID-19, which included research into vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tests.
  • Investing over £300 million to secure and scale up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic.
  • Launching a new NHS service in July 2020 to enable people across the UK to sign up to COVID-19 vaccine trials – over 390,000 have signed up to volunteer.

The UK was the first country in the world to start a vaccination programme using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, shortly followed by the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine. Due to our swift and decisive action there has been a regular and steady supply of vaccine doses arriving into the UK since early December 2020. We are on track to offer a first dose of the vaccine to priority cohorts 1 to 4, as advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, by 15 February 2021.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 26th January 2021

Asked by: William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of the ministerial work of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Business and Industry) comprises overseeing the (a) Vaccine taskforce and (b) Covid-19 vaccination programme.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

I am fully committed to ensuring that the entire adult UK population has been offered a vaccine by Autumn 2021. We are working hard to meet the initial target of offering a first dose to all those in priority cohorts 1 to 4, as advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, by 15th February.