Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what latest estimate they have made of the of revenue and losses in the first operational year of HS2.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
DfT worked with HS2 Ltd to provide high level assessment of the changes to the operational costs as part of the Accounting Officer Assessment for the Reset. However, as the Reset Ranges focus on the capital cost of delivery, an Operational Expenditure Baseline is currently being produced as part of Baseline 8.0, and DfT and HS2 Ltd are continuing to work together on the updated Business Case to be published in 2027.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the annual capacity of the UK vehicle industry to produce battery electric cars.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
The Government has not made a single estimate of annual battery electric vehicle production capacity, however the latest forecasts from the Advanced Propulsion Centre estimate the UK will produce 200k battery electric vehicles (passenger cars and commercial vehicles) in 2027, rising to 600k in 2030. We are supporting UK battery manufacturing via DRIVE35, which helped strategic investments like the Agratas gigafactory in Somerset, and have already committed £47 million for key R&D battery projects across the UK through the Battery Innovation Programme, helping to create skilled jobs, a stronger supply chain and position the UK as a globally competitive destination for battery manufacturing.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the first scheduled train service on the HS2 line will start from (1) Old Oak Common to Birmingham, and (2) Euston to Birmingham.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The first HS2 trains are now expected to start between Old Oak Common in West London and Birmingham Curzon Street between May 2036 and October 2039. We estimate that the full scheme, including both Euston to the south and Handsacre Junction to the north, will open between May 2040 and December 2043.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what change there has been to the acreage of cereal plantings on English farms in 2026 compared to 2025.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra publishes official estimates of crop areas in England relating to 1 June each year. 2026 crop areas will be collected throughout June/July and cereal area estimates are due to be published here [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cereal-and-oilseed-rape-areas-in-england] on 27 August 2026. Areas for previous years are available via the same link.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the budget for payments to Scunthorpe steelmaking in 2026–27.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Budgets for British Steel are subject to the usual government approvals processes and ministerial decisions. The need for HMG support is kept under constant review and all efforts are being made to secure a viable future for the company. All support for British Steel has been drawn from existing HMG budgets, with no additional borrowing required.
To date, we have provided approximately £504 million for working capital, covering items such as raw materials and salaries. This will be reflected in the Department for Business and Trade’s accounts for both 2025-26 and 2026-27.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average price per kilowatt-hour of retail electricity generated by (1) wind power and (2) gas.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. I will correspond directly with the noble Lord.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many jobs have been lost in the last year in the oil, gas, petrochemicals, refining and general chemical sectors.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Redwood
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
28 April 2026
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many jobs have been lost in the last year in the oil, gas, petrochemicals, refining and general chemical sectors (HL16637).
In December 2025, in the UK, there were an estimated 10,000 workforce jobs1 in the mining of coal and lignite; extraction of crude petrol/gas sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) divisions 05-06), a decrease of 2,000 compared with December 2024.
In December 2025, in the UK, there were an estimated 8,000 workforce jobs1 in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) division 19), a decrease of 2,000 compared with December 2024.
In December 2025, in the UK, there were 99,000 workforce jobs2 in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) division 20), an increase of 2,000 compared with December 2024.
A full time series of data can be found in Table 1. Please note that these data are not
seasonally adjusted.
Table 1: Number of workforce jobs3 in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and
semi-trailers sector, UK, not seasonally adjusted.
| Mining of coal and lignite; Extraction of crude petrol/gas | Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products | Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products |
December 2024 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 97,000 |
March 2025 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 95,000 |
June 2025 | 11,000 | 9,000 | 93,000 |
September 2025 | 11,000 | 8,000 | 93,000 |
December 2025 | 10,000 | 8,000 | 99,000 |
Source: Office for National Statistics
These data are published quarterly in tables JOBS03: Employee jobs by industry4 and JOBS04: Self-employment jobs by industry5. The most recent data, up to December 2025, were published as part of our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: March 20266 bulletin, which was published on 19 March 2026.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
1Estimates of workforce jobs include employee jobs and self-employment jobs only, these estimates
exclude any government supported trainees in these sectors.
2 Estimates are presented to the nearest 1,000 and changes have been calculated on rounded
estimates.
3 Estimates of workforce jobs include employee jobs and self-employment jobs only, these estimates
exclude any government supported trainees in these sectors.
4https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/d
atasets/employeejobsbyindustryjobs03
5https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/d
atasets/selfemploymentjobsbyindustryjobs04
6https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/b
ulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/march2026
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total tax they receive, including carbon levies and windfall taxes, on each kilowatt-hour of delivered retail electricity generated by gas at current prices.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Whilst Carbon Price Support and Emissions Trading Scheme comprise the total carbon price applied to electricity generators, this does not translate into a single per kilowatt-hour tax rate on delivered retail electricity. It is therefore not possible to provide a single figure for the total tax received per kWh of delivered retail electricity generated by gas from carbon levies.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UK’s economic performance compared to the EU and USA, considering GDP per capita.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The latest data from the ONS show that GDP per capita rose by 1.1 per cent in 2025, the fastest of any European G7 economy. Over the same period, GDP per capita rose 1.6 per cent in the United States and 1.3 per cent in the EU.
UK GDP per capita has grown by 1.0 per cent since the start of the Parliament, whereas it declined by 0.2 per cent during the previous Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of oil and gas reserves in the North Sea that are not yet licensed for extraction.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) publishes a Reserves and Resources report detailing annual estimates of remaining UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) oil and gas reserves and resources, including volumes that are not currently licensed or developed.
The most recent North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) report was published in October 2025 and is available on the NSTA’s website. It estimates that the total unlicensed resource is around 5.1bn barrels of oil equivalent (bnboe), comprising 2.0 bnboe of marginal discoveries (42% gas) and 3.1 bnboe of prospective resource (34% gas).
This does not reflect the viability of reserves and probability of production. Due to the maturity of the basin, remaining reserves are often technically challenging and may not be commercially viable to extract.