Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address labour shortages in the (1) road haulage, (2) tourism, and (3) hospitality, sectors in the (a) short term, and (b) long term.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is working to alleviate labour shortages in all sectors and is removing employment barriers by boosting wages via the National Living Wage, and furthering workers’ rights, which is particularly important for lower-paid sectors. The Government is also reforming the skills system to ensure an appropriately-skilled workforce.
To address haulage shortages, the Government took over 30 actions, including investing £34m in Skills Bootcamps to train over 11,000 people to become HGV drivers in England.
The newly-created Hospitality & Tourism Skills Board will focus on the medium-to-long term objectives of increasing recruitment, enhancing retention, and building an appropriately-skilled tourism workforce.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 30 January (HL4760), what assessment they have made of the case for restricting the imposition of prepayment meters on energy consumers.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Prepayment meters allow customers to control and budget for the amount they spend on energy and help to mitigate the risk of going into or exacerbating existing debt. A restriction on installation of prepayment meters as a last resort would leave court enforcement as the only recourse in cases of non-payment and large debt. Ofgem has stringent rules on force-fitting prepayment meters. The Government has no plans to restrict this option.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to providing financial assistance to encourage home insulation; and what assessment they have made of the impact of such policies in other jurisdictions.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is investing £6.6 billion over this Parliament in decarbonising heat and energy efficiency. The Energy Company Obligation Scheme, running until 2026 is valued at £4 billion. ECO+ has also been announced, with the scheme worth £1 billion per annum to run from Spring 2023 until 2026.
The Autumn Statement announced a new ambition to reduce energy consumption from buildings and industry to 15% by 2030. A new Energy Efficiency Taskforce will be established supporting this. £6 billion of additional funding will also be available from 2025 to 2028.
The Government routinely considers schemes in other jurisdictions in its policy development process.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the development of carbon capture technology.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Between 2004 and 2021 the UK Government has invested over £346 million into CCUS Research, Development and Deployment (RD&D). This funding has ensured the UK remains at the forefront of CCUS Research and Innovation. Developing the skills, knowledge, and technology to allow the UK to deploy CCUS domestically and export it expertise around the world. In 2020 the UK Government confirmed Advanced CCUS and Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) innovation would be two of the ten priority areas of the £1 billion BEIS Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP, 2021-2025).
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of using prepayment meters on users of such meters in (1) managing their finances, (2) meeting the increased cost of living, and (3) other challenges.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
No assessment has been made. The Government recognises that rising energy prices can make it more difficult for consumers with prepayment meters to buy the energy they need. Therefore, the Government has provided a £37 billion package of cost-of-living support to help households and businesses this winter, including a £15 billion targeted package of direct support for the most vulnerable households. A further funding package worth £26 billion will provide support to the most vulnerable households in 2023/24.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what help they are providing to the UK space industry; in particular, in regards to space launches.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are committed to growing the UK space sector more broadly and deliver our National Space Strategy ambitions, including by recently investing £1.59 billion in European Space Agency (ESA) programmes. BEIS and MoD are providing more than £8bn over the next decade.
This includes the £50 million available to grow new UK markets for small satellite launch and sub-orbital spaceflight.
This includes:
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the shortage of workers in key sectors of the economy; and what steps they are taking to address such shortages.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government continually monitors the status of the labour market, which is strong by historical standards and is close to record levels of (high) employment, (low) unemployment, and (low) inactivity rates.
The Government is investing an additional £3.8 billion into skills and further education over this Parliament to ensure workers can develop the skills businesses need.
Where low pay is a barrier, the Government is supporting better pay by ensuring that all tips go to staff and increasing the National Living Wage to £10.42 an hour.
The 2019 manifesto pledged changes to enhance workers’ rights and support people to stay in work. The Government is backing five Private Members’ Bills which will deliver on these commitments - helping new parents, unpaid carers, hospitality workers, and giving employees better access to flexible working.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish their response to the Making Flexible Working the Default consultation about proposals relating to a legislative framework for flexible working hours.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government consultation on making flexible working the default closed in December 2021, with over 1,600 responses received. These have been carefully considered, and we will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what provision they are making for carbon capture and storage within the UK’s exclusive economic zone; and when those facilities will be available.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As set out in the 10 Point Plan, Government ambition is to establish four CCS clusters by 2030 at the latest. As later set out in the Net Zero Strategy, Government’s aim is to use CCUS technology to capture and store 20-30 MtCO2 per year by 2030.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote energy efficiency in (1) private housing, (2) private rented accommodation, and (3) social housing.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In the Net Zero Strategy, we committed to consulting on phasing in higher minimum performance standards to ensure all homes meet EPC Band C by 2035, where cost-effective, practical and affordable.
The Government is investing over £6.6 billion over this parliament to improve energy efficiency and decarbonise heating. We will deliver upgrades to over half a million homes in the coming years through our Social Housing Decarbonisation, Home Upgrade Grant Schemes and Energy Company Obligation Scheme, delivering average bill savings of £500, based on recent price cap estimates.
We have also launched a digital service providing impartial, tailored advice on energy efficiency. This will be supported by the launch of additional support for homeowners through telephone advice and specific local area advice for energy consumers.