Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that gypsy and traveller site residents have consumer choice of energy providers.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Electricity and gas suppliers generally provide energy to parks and traveller sites via a contract with the park or site owner, who then resells that energy to the tenants. Therefore, residents buy their energy from the park/site owner, not from an energy supplier.
Ofgem has put in place the Maximum Resale Price regulation which requires park or site owners to resell energy to tenants at the same price that they bought it from the supplier.
Whether a tenant can have a direct relationship with an energy supplier will be governed by the terms of the arrangement between the park or site owner and tenant, plus whether the local metering and cabling arrangements enable the residence to operate a direct connection to the distribution system.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they monitor whether banks are complying with their legal duty to enable citizens without a fixed address to access a basic bank account; and what are the results of this monitoring.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The designated providers of basic bank accounts have agreed to report data on basic bank accounts and personal current accounts to HM Treasury for annual publication. These reports are available on the GOV.UK website.[1]
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/basic-bank-accounts
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish their evaluation of their pilot education funding programme for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children and proposed next steps; and what assessment they have made of the connection between (1) the adequacy of educational provision and funding for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, and (2) their statistics for children missing education for the academic year 2022─23, which show that 10 per cent of children missing from education are from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The £1 million Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) Gypsy Roma and Traveller (GRT) Education Areas programme enabled five local authorities and a Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise organisation to deliver tailored support to improve GRT attendance and attainment. Whilst the programme was a one year pilot, the delivery of some of the targeted support carried on beyond that timeline. The close monitoring of the projects helped DLUHC to pick up issues quickly, facilitated the setting up of a buddying system, and improved cross agency relationships and knowledge sharing.
The department has no plans to commission a government evaluation of the programme. The department’s expectation is that participant local authorities will carry out their own evaluation of their projects, build lessons learnt into wider services, and share learning with other local authorities.
The government is committed to ensuring that all children are safe and have access to an excellent education. The department is currently running a call for evidence on ‘Improving support for children missing education’ to seek views on challenges in identifying and supporting children missing from education and how to address those challenges. The call for evidence is open until 20 July and will be used to inform policy future policy thinking. The open consultation is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/improving-support-for-children-missing-education.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to support the development of wave energy technology.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Wave energy technologies have promise but they remain some way from commercial viability and are still at a pre-commercial stage.
The Government supports the development of wave energy technologies through research funding programmes operated both centrally and through UK Research and Innovation. Additionally, wave projects remain eligible to compete in the Contracts for Difference scheme.
The Government engages with industry as it seeks to cut costs, improve reliability and compete with other forms of low-carbon generation.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what stage their negotiations have reached concerning the dispute resolution mechanism in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, especially with regard to secret courts.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has substantially concluded negotiations on the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism in CPTPP allows for investors to seek legal redress from a member state for unfair treatment they have received when accessing, or operating in CPTPP markets, for example if they have been discriminated against because of their nationality, which has caused loss or damage to their investment.
CPTPP includes specific provisions on the transparency of ISDS proceedings, including for tribunal documents and hearings to be made public.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government on what timescales they expect a marine renewable consent can be achieved; and what specific steps they are taking to support a proportionate, streamlined and bespoke consenting process for marine renewables to accelerate the development and deployment of marine renewables within UK waters.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In February 2023 the Government published an Action Plan to deliver reforms to improve the planning system for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, which the Government is implementing. Five revised energy National Policy Statements, published in March 2023, are out for consultation.
Consenting time is around 20 months, although this varies depending on the specific circumstances. In the Action Plan, the Government outlined its intention to establish a fast-track consenting timeframe, which will be available for certain projects, where defined quality standards are met. Proposals for fast-track consenting, including for marine renewables, will be consulted on in spring 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the performance of Wave Energy Scotland; and what plans they have, if any, to replicate its model to support the development of wave energy in England.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has no plans to make an assessment of Wave Energy Scotland. It was established, and is fully funded, by the Scottish Government.
The Government supports the development and deployment of wave energy in the UK through research funding programmes and the Contracts for Difference scheme.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they intend to provide to innovative renewable deployment, such as combined wind and wave offshore sites.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government supports innovative renewable deployment through a suite of research funding programmes and the Contracts for Difference scheme. For example, research projects on combining offshore wind and wave sites can apply to UK Research and Innovation for funding.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many officials are engaged in work to support marine energy reaching commercialisation.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There are four officials whose work is focussed on supporting marine energy commercialisation at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. They are supported by others across the Department who help deliver various renewable schemes and programmes.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the merits of introducing a ringfence for wave energy in future contract for difference auctions.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Through the Contracts for Difference scheme the Government can ringfence budgets for technologies where costs are comparatively higher than other technologies in the same pot, but show potential to make an important contribution to decarbonisation targets. In the upcoming Allocation Round 5 auction, tidal stream and wave technologies will be part of the emerging technologies pot, which has a £35m budget. Of this total, the Government has a ring-fenced budget of £10m to support tidal stream projects. Wave technology is costlier and at precommercial stage, which is several years behind tidal stream in development, hence the Government has not set a ring-fenced budget for this technology.