Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they will take to boost the (1) security, (2) efficiency, and (3) affordability, of energy supplies during the winter months.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK has a secure and diverse energy system. The Government is confident in its plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter.
The Government has put plans in place to secure supply and National Grid, working alongside energy suppliers and Ofgem, has launched a voluntary service to reward users who reduce their electricity demand at peak times. A similar scheme to reward voluntary demand reduction by the heaviest gas users to support energy security is also available, if required.
Making homes and businesses more energy efficient is part of the Government’s wider long-term commitment, announced as part of the Autumn Statement, to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels. The Government is investing £6.6 billion over this parliament on decarbonising heat and energy efficiency measures. The Government has also rolled out a number of energy support schemes across GB and NI to support consumers over the winter with rising energy costs such as the Energy Price Guarantee, Alternative Fuel Payment, Energy Bills Support Scheme. For business the Government has set up Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the energy support payments they pledged would be made available to all regions of the UK will be paid to people living in Northern Ireland; and what is the reason for the delay in making these payments.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 19 December the Government announced that all households in Northern Ireland will receive support with their energy bills this winter through a single payment of £600. This is made up of £400 under the Energy Bills Support Scheme and £200 under the Alternative Fuel Payment. This will be delivered through electricity suppliers, with payments starting in January.
For Northern Ireland we have developed and will deliver a separate and bespoke scheme, working with the separate Northern Ireland electricity suppliers, and respecting the very different nature of the energy market in that part of the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that motorists achieve value for money from fuel retailers, given varying pump prices for fuel within localised areas.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Following the conclusion of their initial review of the road fuel market, the Competition and Markets Authority has launched a Market Study into the supply of road fuel in the UK and is investigating whether the growing gap between the oil price and wholesale price of fuel, including disparities in price at retailers and across urban and rural areas, is justified.
The Department looks forward to receiving its final report and the Government will carefully consider, alongside relevant industry partners, any recommendations made in the study.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to help householders facing increasing energy bills.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 26 May 2022, the Government announced a £15 billion package of cost of living support. This is in addition to the over £22 billion announced previously for the cost of living now totalling over £37 billion this year. This means almost eight million of the most vulnerable households will get £1,200 of one-off support in total this year, with all domestic electricity customers receiving at least £400.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish their energy security strategy.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Energy Security Strategy was published on Thursday 7th April on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what further steps they will take to support small- and medium-sized businesses with rising costs.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is providing a range of support to help small and medium-sized businesses with rising costs. The Government has cut fuel duty for 12 months, raised the Employment Allowance to £5,000, and is zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials. This builds on existing support, including business rates relief worth £7 billion over five years.
In addition, the Help to Grow programmes enable small and medium-sized businesses to mitigate the effects of rising costs by improving their productivity. Help to Grow Digital will support up to 100,000 SMEs by providing financial discounts covering half the costs of approved digital technologies, up to a value of £5000, to help them boost their performance. Help to Grow Management, meanwhile, is an intensive national training programme designed to improve leadership and management skills. Delivered by leading business schools across the UK, the programme is 90% subsidised by the Government, with participants contributing £750. It will support up to 30,000 SME business leaders to increase productivity, seize investment opportunities and grow their businesses, developing skills in areas such as financial management, innovation and staff engagement.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - 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 causes of the disparity in diesel and petrol prices at filling stations across the country.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department’s analysis shows that retail prices of petroleum products such as petrol and diesel are primarily driven by the underlying price in the global market of crude oil and by exchange rates. Departmental analysis shows that changes to the price of crude oil feed through to retail prices over the course of 6-7 weeks.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect the rights of P&O Ferries staff who were made redundant on 17 March.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has written to the Insolvency Service asking them to urgently undertake a thorough review into the actions of P&O Ferries. This will include any scope to take action against the company’s directors. While I do not wish to prejudge the outcome, and it is important due process is followed, we will not hesitate to take further action if appropriate to do so.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to support the hydrogen sector across the UK.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK Hydrogen Strategy reaffirms the Government’s aim to have 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity in the UK by 2030. In the strategy, the Government lays the foundations for a thriving hydrogen economy by 2030, setting out how the Government will support innovation and stimulate investment to rapidly scale up low carbon hydrogen production and use across the economy this decade.
The Government has announced that it will set up the Industrial Decarbonisation and Hydrogen Revenue Support scheme (IDHRS), which will support both electrolytic (‘green’) and CCUS enabled (‘blue’) low carbon hydrogen production. The Government will be providing up to £140 million to establish the scheme, including up to £100 million to award contracts of up to 250MW of electrolytic hydrogen production capacity in 2023 with further allocation in 2024. This means that 500MW of electrolytic hydrogen production projects will be operational or in construction by 2025. The Government will also announce the revenue envelope for CCUS-enabled hydrogen and industrial carbon capture in 2022, which will allow contracts, from 2023, to be awarded for up to 1GW of CCUS-enabled hydrogen.
In the coming months the Government will launch the £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, the first £100 million allocation round for electrolytic hydrogen projects and publish a sector roadmap with a focus on investment, in addition to a Sector Development Action Plan.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what further steps they will take to support solar energy across the UK.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government’s Net Zero Strategy included a commitment to accelerate deployment of low-cost renewable generation, such as solar, across the UK in the 2020s and beyond.
The Government is providing ongoing support to large-scale solar projects across Great Britain in the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme. The fourth CfD auction opened in December 2021 and will aim to deliver up to double the renewable capacity of the last round. Rooftop solar in Great Britain is supported through the Smart Export Guarantee scheme, which requires electricity suppliers to offer a tariff to buy electricity exported to the grid by small low-carbon generators, typically solar panels.
The Government is implementing around £170 million of business rates support in England for green technologies, including solar, to support decarbonising buildings. The Government also supports UK-based innovation in solar through various innovation schemes, including the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, and is working with the solar industry to support development of the UK solar supply chain.
Energy policy is devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive.