Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many high voltage direct current interconnectors are in place between the UK and other countries.
Answered by Lord Henley
The UK currently has 3.5 gigawatts of high voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnection to other countries across three interconnectors:
In addition, there is a 500 megawatt cable to Northern Ireland (Moyle), which connects the GB market to the Irish Single Electricity Market. All interconnections between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are alternating current.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have plans to make an assessment of the extent to which concerns about unsafe working conditions in the UK textiles industry are preventing the return of garment manufacture from offshore.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government has made clear its commitment to crack down on worker exploitation across all labour sectors. The Director of Labour Market Enforcement is looking at labour market exploitation across a range of sectors. He is expected to submit his next strategy in the new year.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the amount that marine aggregates contribute to the sand and gravel requirements of England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Henley
Table 5 of the Monthly Statistics of Building Materials and Components published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy shows that in 2016 there were 50,153,000 tonnes of sand and gravel sold in England and Wales, of which 11,770,000 tonnes were marine dredged – which is equivalent to 23%.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution made by co-operatives to the energy sector.
Answered by Lord Henley
Co-operatives, ranging from small businesses to nationally recognised names such as John Lewis, play a valuable role in the UK with nearly 7,000 independent co-operatives contributing more than £36 billion to the British economy. Employing 226,000 people, the co-operative sector employs 0.7% of the UK’s workforce, making it a significant player in the economy. Co-operative UK published a report in 2017 which recorded 249 co-operatives engaged in the energy and environment sector, with a turnover of £12.7m.
The Government funded the Community Shares programme over 2012- 2018 enabling growth of the market and seeing over £120m raised by communities to buy-out and run local enterprises which included the development of new community energy schemes.
Co-operatives continue to play an important role in local and community energy projects, in particular. This Government is committed to empowering communities and these projects, which put local people in the driving seat, are an important part of a clean, secure and affordable energy system.
With regards to renewable electricity, the Department provides quarterly updates on the number, and capacity, of installations within the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme registered as communities and schools, and co-operatives are one of the eligible legal entities to apply for this. These reports are available via the following link; however we do not hold installation level data for actual or projected generation for co-operatives: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-and-school-feed-in-tariff-statistics.
The Government has not conducted a formal assessment of the contribution co-operatives have made to the wider energy sector; however we recognise that they and other community ownership models play an important role in reducing, managing, purchasing, and generating energy in the UK (for example, the Carbon Co-op).
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of raw materials in the UK house building industry that is sourced in the UK.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Office of National Statistics, UK input output analytical tables, shows 86% of goods and services consumed in the construction industry are UK sourced.
We do not hold any specific statistical data that contains only the proportion of raw material used in house building that are sourced from within the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
Her Majesty's Government what assessment have they made of the contribution to the economy of the brick industry.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Annual Business Survey 2015, published 9 June 2017, showed that the “manufacture of bricks, tiles and construction products, in baked clay” sector in 2015 employed 5,000 people across 125 enterprises, with a turnover of £925million.
Whilst there are no individual statistics on the brick industry other data suggests well over half of this sector is brick manufacture. This represents 0.01% of enterprises and 0.03% of turnover and employment in the non-financial business economy.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of construction aggregates that derive from recycled sources; and what assessment they have made of the scope for increasing this figure.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Mineral Products Association has produced analysis in regards to recycled aggregates. The report, Mineral Products Industry at a Glance 2016, indicates 28% of aggregates in 2015 came from recycled or secondary sources.
Mineral Planning Authorities in England are responsible for assessing recycled aggregates. When undertaking their Annual Aggregate Assessments they identify the proportion of construction aggregates that derive from recycled sources and estimate the future supply of recycled materials.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the productivity of UK workers in comparison with workers in (1) other EU member states, and (2) the US.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces comparisons of UK productivity with the G7 countries and some, but not all, EU member states. ONS statistics show output per hour worked in the UK was 15.9% below the average for the rest of the G7 advanced economies in 2015; 22.7% below that in France; 26.7% below Germany and 22.2% below the USA.
Please see attached tables for full details.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much of the energy consumed in the UK is generated by coal.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
In 2016, 9.1 per cent of UK electricity generation was from coal(1) (30.7 TWh coal-fired generation of 338.6 TWh total generation).
Source: Energy Trends table 5.1, March 2017, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electricity-section-5-energy-trends
(1) Figures for 2016 are provisional. Final figures for 2016 will be published in the 2017 Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), on 27th July 2017.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the operation of the UK Corporate Governance Code.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Since 2011, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published on its website an annual report on the implementation of the UK Corporate Governance Code. In addition, the Government recently published a Green Paper initiating a public consultation on how to upgrade the UK’s corporate governance framework, which included certain aspects of the Code. In February the FRC announced its plans for a fundamental review of the Code building on its globally recognised strengths while considering the appropriate balance between its principles and provisions and the growing demands on the corporate governance framework.