Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to improve productivity.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor has outlined his plans to boost private sector productivity and long-term economic growth with a package of measures under the ‘four Es’ of economic growth: Employment, Enterprise, Education, and Everywhere.
The Government has introduced several fiscal measures to increase productivity. For example, we have introduced full expensing – giving the UK the most generous capital allowances regime in the OECD on a Net Present Value basis to increase business investment and boost labour productivity. We increased the R&D Expenditure Credit relief rate to 20% – the joint highest uncapped headline rate of R&D tax relief in the G7 for large companies.
We are supporting our world leading green industries. For example, up to £20bn of funding has been provided for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage, and we are working with investors through our Automotive Transformation Fund to build a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain in the UK. Furthermore, the Investment Zones programme will catalyse 12 high potential knowledge-intensive growth clusters across the UK.
We are also ensuring our labour market is more productive through our investment in skills and the Chief Secretary is currently leading a programme across government to identify the most ambitious ways to improve productivity in the public sector.
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Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she made of the effectiveness of the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department was created in February 2023 to transform Britain’s energy security and scale up affordable, clean, homegrown power. By March it had published ‘Powering up Britain’, the Government’s strategy to ensure the UK remains among the fastest decarbonising nations in the world, and announced the first £20 billion carbon capture projects for our industrial heartlands. The Department launched Great British Nuclear; scaled up Britain’s renewables; and expanded energy efficiency support. The Department’s Energy Bill will leverage private investment in clean technologies and open up almost half a million new green jobs by 2030.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress he has made on extending the Skills Passport for offshore oil and gas workers to work in (a) renewables, (b) Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage and (c) hydrogen industries; and how many workers are involved in the pilot version of the Skills Passport.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Skills Passport was initially envisaged to enable the transition of workers between offshore oil and gas and offshore wind, but is now planned to be applicable to workers in emerging sectors such as Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage and hydrogen.
The mapping of technical qualifications between the oil and gas and offshore wind sectors has been completed, and work is underway with representatives from emerging energy sectors to explore the mutual recognition of training to support the transition of offshore oil and gas workers.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support exists for farmers who are not claimants of the Basic Payment Scheme and who want to plant hedges and trees for the purpose of carbon sequestration.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are several options available for farmers who are not claimants of the Basic Payment Scheme. Under the Countryside Stewardship (CS) Scheme, we pay for the management of hedgerows by rotational cutting and leaving some hedgerows uncut (BE3) and capital grants to plant and restore hedgerows. This includes hedgerow laying, hedgerow cropping and hedgerow gapping up.
We pay for actions to create woodland under CS and the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO). This includes capital grants which are required to create woodland, such as planting trees and allowing natural colonisation of trees. Producing woodland creation plans ensure all proposals for new woodland consider any impacts on existing biodiversity, landscape character, water, soil and the historic environment, and that local stakeholders have been consulted. Maintenance payments are also essential to support the establishment of young trees.
Woodland creation maintenance payments currently exist across multiple schemes including CS, EWCO and the Tree Health Pilot. We plan to bring these together into a single offer when EWCO transitions into the Environmental Land Management schemes. For Woodland management, under CS, we pay for producing a woodland management plan, woodland improvement and restoring plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites.
Farmers and land managers can also apply to get money for projects that support carbon sequestration via our Landscape Recovery Scheme.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of using pension funds to finance Government investment in green projects.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
At Mansion House on 10th July, the Chancellor set out the Government’s plans to reform the pensions market to secure better outcomes for pension savers and unlock an additional £75 billion of financing for growth by 2030.
Although pension funds must make their own investment decisions, the Government expects these reforms will benefit the UK’s most promising businesses across a variety of sectors.
More broadly the Government has provided significant support for green projects. Spending Review 2021 confirmed that since March 2021 the Government has committed a total of £30 billion of domestic investment for the green industrial revolution. Since then, the Government has made new announcements that provide long-term certainty on our investment plans, including £6 billion for energy efficiency and up to £20 billion for early deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage.
In addition, the Green Financing Programme raises cash which is earmarked towards eligible green expenditures, as set out in the Green Financing Framework, which is available at the link below:
UK Government Green Financing - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Every year the list of projects, funded by the issuance of green gilts and the National Savings and Investment Green Savings Bond, is published in the Allocation Report. The environmental impacts of these projects is then published in the Impact Report biennially, the first of which is due later in 2023.
Asked by: John Howell (Conservative - Henley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has had discussions with his Israeli counterpart on Israeli research grants for carbon capture projects; and whether his Department is providing grants for businesses engaging with carbon capture projects in the UK on a similar basis to those in Israel.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK Government is committed to convene and lead international engagement on CCUS through engaging in multilateral fora and fostering bilateral relationships to collaborate and share lessons on CCUS.
Domestically, In March 2023 we announced up to £20 billion funding for early deployment of CCUS across all sectors. This includes the £1 billion Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) Infrastructure Fund, supporting the ambition for CCUS in four industrial clusters by 2030 at the latest.
This follows previous UK Government investment into CCUS between 2004 and 2021 the UK Government has invested over £346 million into CCUS Research, Development and Deployment (RD&D). This funding has ensured the UK remains at the forefront of CCUS Research and Innovation, developing the skills, knowledge, and technology to allow the UK to deploy CCUS domestically and export our expertise around the world.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when he plans to allocate the £20 billion of funding announced in the Spring Budget 2023 for early deployment of Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has commenced negotiations with Track 1 CCUS projects and networks. Initial funding will be allocated once these negotiations and necessary associated scrutiny have completed.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy on the delivery of large infrastructure projects.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy recognised that net zero requires a major change in how industry makes goods and consumes energy. The Government is providing more than £2 billion of funding to decarbonise energy-intensive industries, which includes part of the £20 billion programme of investment in carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS).
The Government is also committed to creating demand for low carbon products, using measures such as green procurement for public projects, and product standards. The recent consultation on addressing carbon leakage risk will help inform government in how it can make further progress in delivering key infrastructure projects.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy on the creation of skilled jobs and businesses.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy is creating new job opportunities through the deployment of low carbon infrastructure, and is supporting the skills transition so that the current and future workforce benefit from the creation of new jobs. The Government estimated that over 250,000 green jobs could be created across the UK. For example, our commitment to support deployment of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage could help to create 50,000 jobs alone in the UK by 2030.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent estimate he has made of when the carbon dioxide pipeline from the Endurance carbon dioxide store will reach the Humber industrial region.
Answered by Graham Stuart
To contribute to the ambition of capturing and storing 20-30Mt CO2 per year, the Government will develop the Track-1 clusters to increase the benefits they can deliver. The Government announced in Powering Up Britain that it will launch a process later this year to enable further expansion of the Track-1 clusters, beyond the initial deployment, identifying and selecting projects for the HyNet and East Coast Clusters – including the Humber – and their associated stores, as they become viable, to be operational by 2030.