Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - 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 reasons for the decline in UK productivity over the last three successive quarters; and of the comparative performance of other advanced economies whose productivity is increasing.
Answered by Lord Henley
The fall in productivity in 2019 Q1 was predominantly due to a fall in manufacturing productivity of -0.9%. Productivity in the services sector grew by 0.2% over the same period. A similar pattern was observed in 2018 Q4, with services productivity outperforming manufacturing; growing by 0.4% compared to a fall of -1.1% for the latter.
In terms of international comparisons, based on OECD data, all G7 countries excluding the US (for which data are not yet available) experienced a slowdown in productivity growth in 2018. The UK's productivity growth rate of just over 0.5% in 2018, was the second highest in the G7.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Henley on 20 February (HL13575) and on 26 June (HL16396), and following the closure of the Rough gas storage facility, what assessment they have made of whether storing an average of seven days of UK natural gas consumption is a sufficient reserve to cope with any unexpected interruption of global gas supply.
Answered by Lord Henley
Government has published several assessments regarding the UK’s security of gas supply. The assessments include: CEPA’s Security of Supply report (2017), the Strategic Assessment and Review by BEIS (2017) and the UK National Risk Assessment on Security of Supply (2018), as well as the annual Statutory Security of Supply Report (most recent, 2018).
These assessments conclude that current and forecast levels of GB supply and storage infrastructure are sufficient to meet demand in all but the most extreme cases of supply disruption.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 20 February (HL13575), what percentage of the maximum theoretical gas storage is utilised on average for the last full year for which data are available.
Answered by Lord Henley
In 2018, the last full year for which data are available, UK gas storage had on average 62% utilisation, measured as an average of how full storage facilities were on a daily basis.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of GDP is represented by energy use; and what proportion of GDP is estimated to be represented by energy use by (1) 2030, (2) 2040, and (3) 2050, if their current climate change policies are enacted.
Answered by Lord Henley
UK expenditure on energy including imports was approximately £150bn (including taxes) or £113bn (excluding taxes, duties and levies) in 2017[1]. As a direct share, this is 5-7% of GDP depending on the inclusion of taxes, duties and levies. The Government is working to continue to improve energy efficiency across the economy in order to deliver affordable, clean and secure energy – the amount of energy used per unit of GDP has already fallen by 49% since 1990, and we are independently assessed as leading the G20 in cutting emissions while growing the economy since 2000. Our ambitious plans and policies to mitigate against the threat of climate change are set out in the Clean Growth Strategy.
The Government publishes projections of the future volume of energy use based on current and planned policies under a range of sensitivities from now to 2035. The most recent projections can be found on Gov.uk.
[1] Table 1.4 Digest of UK Energy Statistics (copy attached)
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the UK's electricity is currently imported from other EU countries via interconnectors; and what percentage is forecast for 2030.
Answered by Lord Henley
This information is publicly available in:
- Table 5.1: ‘Fuel used in Electricity Generation and Electricity Supplied’, of the 2019 ‘Energy Trends: Electricity’, published by BEIS; and
- Figure 5.1: ‘Electricity Generation by Fuel Source’, of the 2018 ‘Energy and Emissions Projections’, published by BEIS (see table below):
|
|
|
|
|
| TWh |
Year | Coal | Gas | Oil | Nuclear | Renewables | Imports |
2018 | 8 | 119 | 0 | 57 | 121 | 28 |
2019 | 2 | 106 | 0 | 59 | 127 | 32 |
2020 | 1 | 100 | 0 | 59 | 135 | 27 |
2021 | 0 | 81 | 0 | 59 | 145 | 33 |
2022 | 1 | 73 | 0 | 59 | 150 | 36 |
2023 | 0 | 80 | 0 | 53 | 158 | 30 |
2024 | 0 | 75 | 0 | 36 | 163 | 50 |
2025 | 0 | 77 | 0 | 40 | 170 | 41 |
2026 | 0 | 72 | 0 | 53 | 177 | 31 |
2027 | 0 | 78 | 0 | 56 | 170 | 35 |
2028 | 0 | 76 | 0 | 65 | 171 | 34 |
2029 | 0 | 71 | 0 | 72 | 180 | 29 |
2030 | 0 | 66 | 0 | 64 | 185 | 46 |
2031 | 0 | 58 | 0 | 69 | 189 | 50 |
2032 | 0 | 49 | 0 | 81 | 194 | 46 |
2033 | 0 | 46 | 0 | 81 | 199 | 50 |
2034 | 0 | 41 | 0 | 92 | 206 | 43 |
2035 | 0 | 34 | 0 | 104 | 211 | 33 |
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the target for energy suppliers to have taken all reasonable steps to install smart meters in all homes and small businesses in the UK will be met by 2020.
Answered by Lord Henley
The smart meter rollout in Great Britain is making good progress, with over 14.3 million smart and advanced meters operating as of the end of March 2019. The Programme remains on track to offer every home and small business smart meters by the end of 2020.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many days of reserve petrol stock are currently held by the UK, both inside and outside its borders; and how many days of stock will be held within the UK post-Brexit.
Answered by Lord Henley
The UK currently holds 39 days of petrol stocks. The UK is also currently a net exporter of petrol as our refineries produce more than the UK consumes.
The UK has two international obligations to hold emergency oil stocks that can be released in response to disruptions to the oil market, as required by the EU Oil Stocking Directive (2009/119/EC) and under International Energy Agency (IEA) rules. The EU Oil Stocking Directive requires Member States to maintain stocks at the higher of 90 days of net imports or 61 days of inland consumption. The IEA obligation requires 90 days of net oil imports.
UK oil stocking obligations after we exit the European Union will depend on the terms of our exit, including whether there is a transition period. Under any scenario, the UK will continue to be bound by the IEA requirement to hold oil stocks equal to 90 days of net imports. Many countries around the world subscribe to the same obligation, a level widely considered appropriate to protect against oil disruption.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the closure of the Rough gas storage facility, how many days’ worth of natural gas can now be stored in the UK, based on the UK’s average daily consumption.
Answered by Lord Henley
The UK currently has a total gas storage capacity of 2.5 billion cubic metres (bcm), in the form of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) stored at terminals (1.2bcm) and gas stored underground (1.3bcm)[1].
Based on the average daily demand (209 million cubic metres/day)1, the UK’s total gas storage capacity is equivalent to 12 days of average demand (6 days from LNG stocks, and 6 days from underground storage).
[1] Capacity and demand data sources: https://www.nationalgridgas.com/data-and-operations/transmission-operational-data
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - 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 (1) competitiveness, and (2) fair trading practices of the home printer and printer cartridge market.
Answered by Lord Henley
Responsibility for addressing competition and consumer protection issues within markets lies with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA’s predecessor, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) carried out a market study in 2001 on consumer IT goods and services, including the printer and cartridge market. Its main finding on this market was that consumers found it difficult to identify lifetime cost of ownership. The OFT worked with the industry to introduce a labelling scheme to help consumers to consider both purchase price and running costs.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish the business case for creating a spaceport at A’Mhoine; and what is the anticipated cost per kilogram of satellite launched as compared with existing available alternative launchers.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government has this week announced grant funding for a number of projects to kick-start the market for commercial spaceport in the UK, including to support Highlands and Islands Executive (HIE) to build a vertical launch spaceport on the A’Mhoine Peninsula, Sutherland. HIE’s proposal was put forward with its commercial partners and is held in confidence by the UK Space Agency. The cost per kilogram of launch from any spaceport will depend on a number of factors, including the launch vehicle and mission profile, that can only be assessed by a launch vehicle operator.