Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the announcement in the Spring Statement that listed companies will be required to report on their payment performance in their annual report and accounts in order to tackle the issue of late payment, (1) how they intend to publish this information, and (2) when they will assess whether adequate improvement has been made.
Answered by Lord Henley
At Spring Statement, my rt. hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that Government will require large company’s Audit Committees to review payments practices and report them in their annual accounts. We are in discussion on the best mechanism to implement this and further details will be published in due course as part of the Government Response to the Creating a Responsible Payment Culture Call for Evidence.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many smart meters have been installed in England and Wales, broken down by local authority area, in each of the past three years.
Answered by Lord Henley
The latest data on the number of smart electricity and gas meters installed in Great Britain is published on a quarterly basis on Gov.UK. As of the end of December 2018, there were nearly 13.8 million smart and advanced meters currently operating in Great Britain.
Data is published only at Great Britain level. Data is not collected from energy suppliers in a format that allows local authority counts to be produced.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the UK’s energy mix by 2030 will be delivered by (1) marine renewable energy, and (2) solar energy; and what steps they (a) have taken, and (b) intend to take, to achieve the delivery of that percentage.
Answered by Lord Henley
On an annual basis BEIS publishes updated energy and emissions projections, which are located on the BEIS website. In the latest report published 11 April 2019, renewables are projected to form 59% of the UK's electricity generation by 2030 (under the reference scenario). Up to the early 2020s, the reference scenario reflects current power sector policies. Beyond the early 2020s, the reference scenario includes assumptions that go beyond current Government policy. The results do not indicate a preferred outcome and should be treated as illustrative.
Since 2003 the Government has made £174m innovation and grant funding available to wave and tidal stream technologies with £80m of that since 2010. Wave and tidal stream projects benefitted from the highest level of support under the Renewables Obligation (5 RO Certificates/MWh) and are eligible to enter the forthcoming Contract for Difference allocation round. As set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, wave and tidal stream technologies could have a role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK, but they will need to demonstrate how they can compete with other forms of generation.
Solar PV is a UK success story: under the RO and Feed in Tariff schemes, both of which have now closed, a total of 12.3GW of solar PV capacity was delivered. We are now exceeding our historic projections on solar PV deployment. In 2013 we estimated that solar capacity would reach 10-12GW by 2020, but latest figures indicate that we already have over 13GW of solar capacity installed in the UK; enough to power over 3 million homes. Subsidy-free deployment of solar PV may be a viable option for developers in future, with two such sites having already deployed in the UK, and the planned construction of two more large-scale subsidy-free solar projects was announced in February 2019.