Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Help to Grow: Digital has a budget of £296 million over the three years of the scheme.

Help to Grow: Management has a budget of £220 million over the next three years.

Over the next three years, Help to Grow: Digital will support up to 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses with online advice and a voucher to help meet software costs.

Help to Grow: Management will support up to 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses leaders from across the UK to increase productivity, seize investment opportunities and grow their business.

Help to Grow: Digital will launch in Autumn 2021 and therefore has not disbursed any funds to date. It is expected to disburse £296 million over three years up to 2024/25.

Help to Grow: Management delivered its first course on 5 July. The total cost of the programme is £220 million up to 2024/25. Approximately £62 million of this funding is expected to be disbursed in 2021/22.

BEIS does not hold information on specific postcodes of post office branch closures.

A list of open post office branches can be found in the post office network report: https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/secure-corporate/our-network/post-office-network-reports/#.

Consumer protection law requires mandatory protection of consumer deposits in a number of sectors, and particularly in the travel industry. The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 ensure arrangements are made so travellers are refunded, or where applicable repatriated, should the organiser become insolvent.

In July 2020 the Government announced that passengers who accept refund credit notes for cancelled holidays as a result of COVID-19 will be protected by the ATOL scheme if necessary. If the CMA finds evidence that companies are failing to comply with the law, it will take appropriate enforcement action.

In July, the Government published a command paper, ‘Reforming Competition and Consumer Policy’ that sets out a range of proposals to enhance consumers’ rights, including with regard to consumer prepayments which in some cases count as deposits. The consultation closes on 1 October and can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-competition-and-consumer-policy.

As set out in the answer given to the Hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion on 13th September 2021 to Question 41806, the UK committed approximately £71 million to the self-financing facility of COVAX, which enables high and upper-middle income countries to pool investments in potential vaccine candidates and supported its establishment last year. This gives us the option to buy vaccines for up to 20% of the UK population - approximately 27 million doses. The Government has separately committed £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, which will distribute 1.2 billion doses of vaccines to developing countries this year.

In addition, I am proud that as part of our commitment to the G7 to donate 100 million doses over the course of the next year, the UK has so far donated over 10 million doses to those countries most in need, of which over 6 million have gone to COVAX. Throughout the COVID-19 vaccination programme, vaccine supply and deliveries have been carefully managed by the Vaccine Taskforce to meet the requirements of the domestic vaccination programme as well as support other countries’ domestic campaigns. The recent sharing of 4 million doses with Australia is a good example of this.

The UK procured approximately 0.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine through COVAX, which were delivered earlier this year. These doses helped the NHS deliver our vaccination programme as quickly as possible. No further doses have been received by the UK from COVAX.

The analysis of final Coronavirus loan scheme data was published on July 6, 2021 on the British Business Bank website.[1]

Under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, 1,560,309 loans were delivered in total, to the sum of £47.36 billion.

Under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, 131 loans were offered in the Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency, to the sum of £31,605,525. Under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme in the same constituency, 1461 loans were offered, to the sum of £39,697,177.

In total, 1592 loans were offered across the constituency, to the sum of £71,302,701.

[1] https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/press-release/analysis-of-final-coronavirus-loan-scheme-data-shows-79-3bn-of-loans-to-1-67m-businesses-evenly-distributed-across-whole-of-the-uk/

Where toys manufactured overseas are placed on the UK market, a UK-based importer must ensure that their name or trade name and address are marked on the product.

However, the Government recognises the challenge of third-party sales, where the retailer is based overseas. OPSS is currently conducting a review of the UK’s product safety framework, including in relation to e-commerce and supply chain responsibility, to ensure it remains fit for purpose, protects consumers, and enables businesses to innovate and grow. The Government issued a public Call for Evidence to support the review which closed on 17 June. Officials are currently reviewing the evidence received and we will publish a response in due course.

The Government is committed to ensuring that only safe consumer products can be sold in the UK. Product safety legislation places obligations on manufacturers, importers and distributors and this includes overseas online retailers selling goods via marketplaces.

Under the UK Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011, a toy must be marked with the name of the UK-based manufacturer or UK-based importer, and the address at which they can be contacted. Where this is not possible on the toy, the relevant information must be present on the toy’s packaging or in an accompanying document.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is taking forward a programme of work to ensure that major online marketplaces are playing their part to protect UK consumers from unsafe goods sold via third parties. OPSS works with colleagues in local Trading Standards to take action where products are identified online that do not meet the UK’s product safety requirements and expects online platforms to act quickly to remove them from sale. This has recently included action taken to ensure that a number of non-compliant products, including toys, being sold by third-party sellers have been removed from sale, delisted, recalled or destroyed. In addition, we are developing a new voluntary commitment for online marketplaces to agree further actions they will take to reduce the risks from unsafe products being sold online.

OPSS is also currently conducting a review of the UK’s product safety framework, including in relation to e-commerce, to ensure it remains fit for purpose, protects consumers, and enables businesses to innovate and grow. The Government issued a public Call for Evidence to support the review which closed on 17 June. Officials are currently reviewing the evidence received and we will publish a response in due course.

The Government is committed to ensuring that only safe consumer products can be sold in the UK. Product safety legislation places obligations on manufacturers, importers and distributors and this includes overseas online retailers selling goods via marketplaces.

Where products are identified online that do not meet the UK’s product safety requirements, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) works with colleagues in local Trading Standards to take action and expects online platforms to act quickly to remove them from sale. This has recently included action to ensure that a number of non-compliant products, including toys, being sold by third-party sellers have been removed from sale, delisted, recalled or destroyed.

The Government is fully committed to supporting the independent businesses and communities that make our town centres successful as the nation responds to the impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak. Our package of support for businesses through this period totals over £352 billion including business grants, the coronavirus loan schemes and Job Retention Scheme, as well as deferral of income tax payments. This builds on major investment and action from Government to level up opportunity and prosperity across all areas of the country, including through the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, the £220 million UK-wide Community Renewal Fund and the £3.6 billion Towns Fund.

The retail, hospitality and leisure business rates relief in England is worth over £6bn to eligible businesses in 2021/22 alone. We extended the moratorium on commercial landlords’ right to forfeiture for the non-payment of rent to March 2022, and we will introduce legislation to help landlords and tenants resolve historic Covid-19 rent debt through binding arbitration if necessary.

The effectiveness of both Help to Grow programmes will be assessed on the productivity benefits gained by SMEs, and early indicators of success based on criteria such as successful tech adoption and increased use of management practices within their business. Data on the geographical spread of participating SMEs, and their outcomes, will be part of the monitoring and evaluation.

The Test, Trace and Isolate system has been a core element of the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NHS app has been proven to work, breaking chains of transmission and saving lives. Whilst the requirement to isolate presents challenges to some businesses, isolation following contact with a person with COVID-19 remains an important action people can take to stop the spread of the virus. This will help to protect businesses, their employees, and their customers.

Solar energy is a key part of the Government’s strategy for decarbonisation of the energy sector and the Energy White Paper, published in December 2020, committed to ‘sustained growth’ in solar photovoltaics (PV) across the next decade.

Installing solar PV alongside electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints, particularly if also paired with battery storage, has a number of benefits. Smart and flexible solutions such as this can increase the use of renewable electricity and reduce demand on the grid. Reducing demand can in turn reduce the cost of connecting the chargepoints to the electricity network and avoid costly electricity network reinforcement.

The Government promotes the use of smart and flexible solutions for those seeking to install EV chargepoints. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles provided grant funding to the UK’s first solar electric forecourt demonstrator project which is led by Gridserve and opened at the end of 2020. The Government has also published guidance on connecting EV chargepoints to the electricity network, which highlights that businesses should consider implementing flexible solutions. The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/connecting-electric-vehicle-chargepoints-to-the-electricity-network/connecting-electric-vehicle-chargepoints-to-the-electricity-network.

The Government protects the branch network by setting minimum access criteria and protects services by setting minimum services to be provided at post offices across the UK. These criteria ensure that 90% of the population are within one mile of the nearest post office branch and that 99% of the population are within three miles of the nearest post office branch.

The Government invested £640 million in the Post Office between 2015 and 2018, £370 million from 2018 to 2021 and £227 million in 2021/22. This funding allows Post Office Ltd to safeguard services in the uncommercial parts of the network and invest for the future.

The Government is committed to supporting UK manufacturing businesses and recognises the vital role they play in the UK economy, by driving innovation, exports, job creation and productivity growth. Successful resolution of supply chain pressures will be a joint effort between industry and Government, and we will continue to engage with other departments to find practical solutions to these challenges, which are not unique to the UK.

The Government works closely with infrastructure operators to ensure that the impacts of a severe space weather event are well understood, and the appropriate steps are taken to ensure the sector’s preparedness for major space weather events.

Animal testing of cosmetics for the purposes of meeting the Cosmetics Regulation has been banned in the United Kingdom since 1998. No animal testing on finished cosmetic products, or ingredients or combinations of ingredients may take place in the United Kingdom. There are no plans to change this position.

The Department’s 2020 Cost of Electricity Generation Report[1] presents forecasts from 2025 to 2040. In response to point (c), the capital costs assumed in the report are £1.95million per megawatt capacity, in 2018 prices, for a UK offshore wind farm commissioning in 2025. The above can also be taken as the Department’s assumption for (b), wind farms that are due to be commissioned in the next five years.

The Department does not hold historic project data on (a), capital costs for UK offshore wind farms commissioned in the past five years.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-2020

The Trade Union Membership 2020 Statistical Bulletin, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 27^th May 2021, reports that the number of employees in the UK who are members of a recognised trade union is 6.6 million.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is independent of government, with a remit to tackle individual and market-wide competition issues, including breaches of competition law. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State, BEIS officials and I have regular discussions with the CMA on a wide range of issues.

At present, global demand for building materials is far in excess of supply, leading to product shortages and rapid and sustained price inflation. The situation is being exacerbated by disruption to shipping and port operations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We continue to work closely with the Construction Leadership Council’s Product Availability Group to monitor and manage this challenging situation.

The Government welcomes the efforts of retailers in supporting our transition towards net zero and strengthening our resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The British Retail Consortium have published a Climate Action Roadmap which offers detail on the actions needed for decarbonisation across retail operations, logistics, and supply chains and products.

On 18 August, the Retail Sector Council launched a national online initiative to help small independent retailers (SMEs) cut their carbon footprint and become more environmentally friendly. Green Street is an informative and accessible Hub, built by retailers for retailers to encourage planet friendly shopping.

The Government has no role in setting the strategic direction or priorities of private sector businesses. As part of the mandatory consultation process on the future of the GKN Driveline factory in Birmingham, the government secured assurances from GKN Automotive that they would consider viable alternatives to closure, including repurposing the plant to produce components for electric vehicles.

Alternative proposals were submitted as part of the consultation. After careful consideration, GKN regrettably concluded there were no viable alternatives to closure.

The government is maintaining a dialogue about the site’s future, actively marketing the site and is working with GKN and local partners to provide support and guidance to the GKN employees. Any potential future commercial propositions for the Birmingham site will be assessed on their own merits.

The Government remains fully committed to working in partnership with industry to support the automotive sector’s transition to zero emission vehicles. Nearly £500m has been made available through the Automotive Transformation Fund to build an internationally competitive electric vehicle supply chain as part of my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan. This will create thousands of well-paid green jobs in our industrial heartlands, including the West Midlands.

The Government had already committed £1.5 billion to support the early market and remove barriers to zero emission vehicles ownership. Alongside the new phase out dates we have pledged a further £2.8 billion package of measures to support industry and consumers to make the switch to cleaner vehicles.

The Government wants to ensure everyone, including those without access to the electricity grid can still benefit from the transition to zero emission vehicles. The On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) is available to all UK local authorities to provide public chargepoints for their residents including those without access to the electricity grid.  Drivers may also chose to charge their vehicle at their workplace, or when they do their shopping.

The forthcoming EV Infrastructure Strategy will also set out Government’s vision for the future of EV charging. A strong focus will be on the needs of those who cannot rely on off-street charging. Local authorities and Chargepoint operators should work together to provide sufficient levels of provision in order to meet demand.

The development proposal from Cambo is being scrutinised in line with robust regulatory procedures and no decision has yet been taken by OGA yet.

The UK is leading the way in the energy transition and this year the UK published the North Sea Transition Deal – the UK is the only G7 country to have agreed a landmark deal to support the oil and gas industry’s transition to green energy by 2050 while at the same time supporting 40,000 jobs.

As set out in our Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, we are continuing to assess a range of potential options on the issue of carbon leakage. We will be publishing more analysis on the possible risks of carbon leakage to the UK and possible mitigation options in due course.

As incoming COP president and G7 president, our instinct is to work together with our international partners, including developed and developing countries, on how we tackle climate change together.

As set out in our Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, we are continuing to assess a range of potential options on the issue of carbon leakage. We will be publishing more analysis on the possible risks of carbon leakage to the UK and possible mitigation options in due course.

The UK’s ambitious carbon pricing mechanism - including our new UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) and Carbon Price Support mechanism – is also a fundamental component of our Strategy. We are committed to reviewing the UK ETS to ensure it aligns with our Net Zero commitments. This will include reviewing our current approach to providing at risk sectors with free allocations.

As set out in our Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, we are continuing to assess a range of potential options on the issue of carbon leakage. We will be publishing more analysis on the possible risks of carbon leakage to the UK and possible mitigation options in due course.

The Ten Point Plan is part of my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister's mission to level up across the country, mobilising £12 billion of government investment to create and support up to 250,000 highly-skilled green jobs in the UK, and spur over three times as much private sector investment by 2030.

At every step on the path to Net Zero, we will put affordability and fairness at the heart of our reforms.

There is inherent uncertainty in any cost estimate for the thirty-year transition to net zero, but it is clear the cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of action on climate change. The Stern Review estimated the impacts of unmitigated climate change at equivalent to 5-20% of global GDP.

Ahead of COP26, the Government has committed to publish a Net Zero Strategy, setting out the Government’s vision for the transition to a net zero economy and outlining our path to meet the UK’s emissions targets. HM Treasury are also conducting a review on the costs of reaching net zero, to inform the Government’s approach to achieving a transition in a way that works for households, businesses and public finances, and maximises growth opportunities.

Since May, we have held a series of stakeholder meetings with key organisations from business and family/women’s representative groups to discuss the issues which pregnant women and new mothers can face in the workplace. These have focused on what an Advisory Board can usefully add to other work in this area – such as the Government’s commitment to extend the redundancy protection currently offered to someone on maternity leave into a period of return to work. The first full meeting of the Board will take place later in September and will agree Terms of Reference and the forward work programme.

We have already taken steps to improve the rights of workers by legislating to close a loophole which sees agency workers employed on cheaper rates than permanent workers, by quadrupling the maximum fine for employers who treat their workers badly, and by giving all workers the right to receive a statement of their rights from day one. On top of this, in the past year alone, the Government has taken action to support workers by increasing pay for around 2 million workers and enabling workers to carry over more annual leave, due to the pandemic.

The Government also spends around £35 million on state enforcement of employment rights for vulnerable workers. Over the past year, a multiagency taskforce (Operation TACIT) has been operating in Leicester to tackle allegation of abuse in the city's garment factories, which has visited over 300 premises and taken appropriate enforcement action where necessary, as well as working with Leicester City Council to engage with the community and increase whistleblower confidence.

The Government has worked with Advent to monitor compliance with the undertakings given at the time of their acquisition of Cobham, including commitments to give advanced notice of plans to sell parts of the business.

Through the North Sea Transition Deal, the offshore oil and gas sector committed to appointing an industry supply chain champion to co-ordinate business opportunities with other energy sectors. Good progress has been made on this and an announcement is expected soon.

As we move towards net-zero, oil and gas will play a smaller, but still an important role in meeting UK energy demand. All scenarios proposed by the Climate Change Committee setting out how we could meet our 2050 net zero emissions target include continuing demand for oil and natural gas.

The IEA report acknowledges that continued investment in existing sources of hydrocarbons will be required to meet the world’s energy demands on the pathway to net zero.

Looking forward, the Government will introduce a climate compatibility checkpoint which will be used to assess whether any future licensing rounds remain in keeping with our climate goals. We have committed to launching this checkpoint by the end of 2021.

In relation to coal powered generation, in June, we announced the deadline for phasing out unabated coal generation in Great Britain will be brought forward to 1 October 2024 as part of our drive to go further and faster in decarbonising the power sector as we work towards net zero emissions by 2050.

The Environmental Statement submitted by Siccar Point Energy E&P Limited considers the potential environmental impacts associated with the proposed project of the Cambo Phase 1 Field Development. That Environmental Statement is currently being assessed by the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED) in accordance with the Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, Production, Unloading and Storage (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2020.

The Government recognises that the £20 Universal Credit uplift has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic. We announced the temporary uplift as part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Our focus is now on our multi-billion ‘Plan for Jobs’, which will support people in the long-term by helping them learn new skills, increase their hours, or find new work.

Home energy and fuel poverty policy are matters devolved to the Scottish Parliament. However, until the Scottish Government has built the capacity to replace them, Cold Weather Payments, Winter Fuel Payments continue to be UK Government provision in Scotland. The Energy Company Obligation and Warm Home Discount will continue to apply across Great Britain until at least March 2022

Heat pumps are a cost-effective way of decarbonising heat and can be widely used in existing homes and buildings, including those not connected to the gas grid.

The Clean Heat Grant will provide upfront capital grants to support the installation of both air source and ground source heat pumps, in domestic and small non-domestic properties. The Government recognise that some properties may not be suitable for heat pumps and will therefore also provide targeted support for biomass boilers through the Clean Heat Grant, where these are installed in off gas grid, rural properties.

Grid-scale lithium-ion battery energy storage systems are covered by a robust regulatory framework which requires manufacturers to ensure products are safe before they are placed on the market, that they are installed correctly, and that any safety issues found after products are on the market or after installation are dealt with.

In 2018, BEIS set up an industry-led Storage Health and Safety Governance Group responsible for ensuring that an appropriate, robust, and future-proofed health and safety framework is sustained as the industry develops. In 2020 following a recommendation from this Group, the Government commissioned a gap analysis to identify any gaps in the health and safety standards landscape. This will be published in due course

We have commissioned external analysis to improve understanding of the role that large-scale, long-duration electricity storage will play in the electricity system, how much may be required at different points in time, and the benefits of different durations of storage. It includes a range of different technologies such as pumped hydro storage and less established long duration storage technologies like hydrogen storage and compressed air energy storage. This analysis will inform how we address the barriers to deployment that such storage faces. We aim to publish the results of this analysis in due course.

Markets which reflect the value of flexibility will be key to achieving a smart, flexible energy system. Our approach in the 2021 Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan centres on creating a best-in-class regulatory framework by removing regulatory and policy barriers and ensuring that markets reflect the value of flexibility to the system. We have set out actions to ensure that flexibility technologies are rewarded for the services they provide to the system including commitments on the Electricity System Operator (ESO) to deliver reforms to its suite of balancing services to enable the transition to a sustainable energy system.

We expect the ESO to maintain the pace of reform needed to operate a net-zero system and facilitate participation from all technologies to unlock the full value of flexibility being offered.

Alongside the 2021 Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan, we published a call for evidence on large-scale, long-duration electricity storage designed to help us build our understanding of the specific challenges faced, and gather information about potential ways to address them, including which interventions (if any) would be most appropriate to support the deployment of such storage. We will continue to work closely with industry and other stakeholders as we consider the challenges and opportunities of different options for intervention.

The Government committed to phasing out the installation of fossil fuels in homes and buildings off the gas grid this decade. Alongside the publication of the Heat and Building Strategy, we are planning to consult on new regulations to meet this commitment.

We accept that for some the cost of installing a heat pump may be prohibitive, which is why we are providing support through schemes like the Renewable Heat Incentive and forthcoming Clean Heat Grant. The Home Upgrade Grant scheme will provide support to low income off grid households installing energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating.

There are no plans to alter the current concessionary fuel arrangements awarded to certain qualifying former employees and their widows of the coal mining industry.