Found: Today the food system and wider society face a number of challenges, from ingredient and energy costs

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to help support (a) sustainable growth and (b) competitiveness of the steel sector in the context of recent trends in the level of Chinese steel exports.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

Our support to the UK steel sector is clear, we have introduced effective safeguards against non-market economies, helped public projects procure more UK made steel and we are launching the British Industry Supercharger to bring energy costs closer in line with those charged across the world’s major economies.

This Government has agreed a £500m grant as part of a larger £1.25bn commitment by Tata Steel to transform and secure a sustainable future at their Port Talbot works. We have also offered a generous support package to British Steel.

More widely, the UK has a highly skilled workforce, a supportive tax and business environment which is more competitive than our EU neighbours, an increasingly decarbonised energy grid for green steel, and plentiful supplies of steel scrap.

Found: If you have previous ly received your energy supply via a domestic contract, how have your energy costs

Found: A few consumers reported that they were currently in debt because of their energy costs, but only a

Found: announced and consulted on by government last year, includes a series of targeted measures to bring energy

Found: Other key non -monetised costs by ‘main affected groups’ (Maximum of 5 lines) • Energy costs to run

Found: Soaringenergycostsare likelytoinfluence people’sutilisation ofbuildinginteriorsforsome

Found: improvements to our energy markets that will ensure security of supply and benefit consumers through lower energy

Found: Firms raised prices in response to higher energy costs whilst increased labou r market inactivity and

Found: Across all the diaries, struggling with energy costs was a concern with particularly cold weather in

Found: prices and interest rates have had a significant impact on the amount UK conumers are paying for their energy

Found: million for the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund to support islanders facing high fuel, food and energy

Found: quarterly that provides customers with energy market news, purchases made to date and ‘estimated’ future energy

Found: share of businesses by plans to reduce energy costs, broken down by industry, size - Businesses Not

Found: allow generation of more solar energy and will support businesses to decarbonise and reduce their energy

Found: will allow generation of more solar energy and will support businesses to decarbonise and reduce their energy

Found: people, especially in terms of heating their homes where being off-gas grid can often result in higher energy

Found: people, especially in terms of heating their homes where being off-gas grid can often result in higher energy

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on what impact its decision not to replicate in Scotland the non-domestic rates relief available to hospitality businesses in England has had on (a) jobs and (b) growth in the sector.

Answered by Arthur, Tom - Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance

The Scottish Government is aware of the pressures facing businesses due to inflation, energy costs and the cost crisis. While Scottish Ministers are sympathetic to calls to replicate the non-domestic rates relief available to businesses in England in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, doing so would have meant that the Scottish Government could not provide the NHS, schools, or emergency services with the funding they require.

The Scottish Government estimates that over 60% of properties in the hospitality sector across Scotland will be eligible for 100% relief from Non-Domestic Rates in 2024-25 (including from the Small Business Bonus Scheme, the new islands and specified remote areas hospitality relief, and others).