Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans for the UK to join Horizon Europe; and if so, what steps they are taking to secure the UK's membership.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK stands ready to formalise our association to Horizon Europe at the earliest opportunity. The Government continues to do everything it can to complete this process swiftly, but disappointingly there have been persistent delays from the EU.
In order to provide reassurance to the sector, the UK Government has guaranteed funding for the first and second waves of eligible successful applicants to Horizon Europe who expect to sign agreements by December 2022 and who have been unable to sign grant agreements with the EU. If the UK is unable to associate to Horizon Europe, we will be ready to introduce a comprehensive alternative programme of international science, research and innovation collaborations.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current position regarding the UK’s membership of the Horizon Europe research programme and the ability of British scientists to join it.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer my noble Friend to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation to the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central on 27 April 2022 to Question 156445.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following instances of thefts of Georgian and Victorian post boxes in East Anglia, (1) how many post boxes have been stolen across the UK in the last 12 months, and (2) what discussions they have had with Royal Mail regarding the replacement of those post boxes.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Royal Mail is aware of the theft of post boxes in parts of East Anglia and is working closely with law enforcement agencies and deploying preventative measures to deter theft.
The Government is not involved in the replacement of post boxes which is an operational matter for Royal Mail.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to discuss with international partners the warnings by scientists working in the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration of the potential for ice shelf failure along the Thwaites Glacier in the next decade.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is always seeking to discuss issues with our international partners where appropriate opportunities arise. This is no exception and there is a strong international community involved in monitoring and discussing the risk around the Thwaites Glacier.
In 2018, the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, a five-year £20million Antarctic research programme and the largest joint project undertaken by the two nations in Antarctica for more than 70 years. This project is aimed at collecting instrument data throughout the glacier and the adjacent ocean, and modelling ice flow and the future of the ice sheet. The collaboration involves around 100 scientists from world-leading research institutes in both the US and UK alongside researchers from South Korea, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand and Finland, who will contribute to the various projects.
The changes that may occur in the vicinity of the grounding line of the Thwaites Glacier in the next decade will not, of themselves, result in a significant change in global sea level. While some computer models predict that such changes may lead to a wider loss of ice to the ocean, these are processes occurring on century timescales. For this reason, the NERC and BAS priority at present is to continue to monitor the Thwaites Glacier with satellite and ground observations, as they are presently undertaking in collaboration with the US.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many job vacancies there are in England; what assessment they have made as to whether there are sufficient workers available to fill those vacancies, particularly in the (1) IT and computing, and (2) hospitality, sectors; and what plans they have to address any skills gaps.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government actively monitors the UK labour market. The latest ONS statistics suggest that, between March and May 2021, there were 758,000 vacancies in the economy, only 27,000 below the pre-pandemic level.
We are actively supporting the hospitality sector on its road to recovery. We are offering generous incentives to employers to recruit staff, with hundreds of young people starting work every day through the Kickstart Scheme. We are providing employers with a hiring incentive for each new apprentice they hire and have increased the payment to £3,000 for each newly hired apprentice of any age, helping more people to kick start or upskill their career across a broad range of industries. We are also investing £126 million in additional support to help create 40,000 more traineeships in England, funding high-quality work placements and training for 16-24-year olds in 2021-22.
The digital transformation is driving rises in the number of tech and digital jobs advertised, providing an opportunity to get people into good quality work. According to Adzuna estimates, there were 132,000 tech job vacancies in the UK in May, making up 12% of all open vacancies. There are nearly three million jobs in the digital tech economy, more than either Construction (1.9m) or Financial Services (1.2m) and the sector accounts for 9% of the UK’s workforce.
The 10 Tech Priorities, launched by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in March, includes ‘’building a tech savvy nation’’. Our apprenticeships and digital bootcamps will help set people up for highly skilled, highly paid roles of the future.
Encouraging many more skilled people to enter digital roles is vital if the UK is to have the digital skills it requires. In order to coordinate industry support for the teaching of computing in English schools, DCMS created the Digital Skills Partnership Schools group. In order to raise the awareness of interesting digital roles and routes into them, the Digital Skills Partnership Schools Group is working with industry to test how best to do this. The pilot, funded by DCMS, is being run by the South West Local Digital Skills Partnership.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, having secured Associate Status to the Horizon Europe programme, whether they will fund participation in that programme in full; and whether there will be a consequential impact on the UK Research and Innovation budget.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Association to Horizon Europe will bring huge benefits to the UK. The Government has announced an additional £250 million in 2021/22 for Horizon Europe. An additional £400 million, earmarked at Spending Review for 2021/22 to help support government priorities, will help to pay for association to Horizon.
Government investment in R&D will reach £14.9billion in 2021/22, its highest level in four decades. UK scientists will now have access to more public funding than ever before.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their report Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, published on 16 March, and their stated aim to secure the UK’s status as a ‘Science and Tech Superpower’ by 2030 by redoubling the commitment to research and development, whether they intend to reverse funding cuts to research and development programmes; and if so, to which programmes they intend to provide increased funding.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our commitment to research and development has been clearly demonstrated through the Spending Review announcement to increase investment in R&D across government to £14.6bn in 2021/22. This increase in investment will help deliver our ambition to increase total UK R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.
The increased investment will put research and development at the heart of economic and social recovery from the impacts of COVID-19, enabling us to build back better for a greener, healthier and more resilient UK.
As the custodian of the R&D system, BEIS was allocated £11.1 billion for R&D in 2021/22. Funding for each individual programme is subject to our Departmental allocations process, which is under way. We will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - 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 impact of job losses and business closures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic on (1) women, and (2) ethnic minorities; and what action they are taking as a result.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Throughout this crisis, the Government has sought to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods whilst supporting businesses and public services across the UK. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) is specifically designed to protect jobs, and it has been used by 1.3m employers to support 11.2m jobs. Since July, more than half of the jobs that have been furloughed were held by women, and we have ensured that women will not lose Statutory Maternity Pay if their roles have been furloughed.
We recognise that unfortunately it has not been possible to protect every business and every job and our thoughts are with those who have been impacted by this virus. While the pandemic has had a significant impact across the whole labour market, certain groups have been more affected than others. For example, the latest official statistics show that individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be out of work. Existing Covid-19 support measures and the measures announced at Budget 2021 seek to address this.
The new Restart Grants will provide up to £6k for non-essential retail businesses and up to £18k for hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gyms, for example. The hospitality and personal care sectors have a higher proportion of employees that are young, female, BAME and without qualifications when compared to other industries. By contributing to business survival, these grants will therefore benefit these groups as a result.
Moreover, VAT reductions and extending business rates relief for businesses in the hospitality sector will continue to protect both the UK economy and the livelihoods of people across the country, in particular BAME employees and women.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to reports by the Copernicus Climate Change Service that there was a heatwave in March, April and May in the Arctic Circle, what recent discussions they have had with other parties to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement on the impact of prolonged high temperatures in the Arctic on the global climate.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Government officials hold regular discussions with climate scientists and negotiators from arctic nations and others, including through the Cryosphere High Urgency group run by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they have taken, or intend to take, to work with international partners to develop an effective legal environment to regulate activity in space, in view of the rapid expansion in space innovation, exploration and investment.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The UK is an active participant at the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which oversees implementation of the UN treaties and conventions that form international space law and are the basis of the United Kingdom’s domestic legislation and regulatory regime.
The Space Industry Act 2018, under which we are currently developing secondary legislation and regulatory guidance, requires the regulator to take account of international obligations. We are engaging with a wide range of international partners in this process.