Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to promote awareness by employers of the potential for prolonged covid-19 symptoms.
Answered by Paul Scully
Someone’s ability to do their job can be affected by health conditions such as covid-19 symptoms. Several laws are relevant when managing sick leave and return to work. These include the Equality Act, the Employment Rights Act and the Health and Safety at Work etc Act.
During the Covid-19 crisis, the Government has worked with a wide range of businesses, trade unions and representative organisations to issue guidance on safe return to work. This guidance has been regularly updated in line with scientific advice.
In line with employment and health and safety law, guidance issued by the Health and Safety Executive sets out that employers should have policies and procedures on managing sick leave. They should develop these in consultation with workers and their representatives. The guidance states that employers should:
- record and monitor sick leave to help them identify trends and manage risk
- train their managers on how to manage sick leave and return to work
- keep in contact with workers who are off sick, ensuring the conversation remains focused on their health, safety and wellbeing and their return to work
- consider making workplace adjustments to help workers return to work. This could include shorter hours, flexible or part-time working, or adapting work equipment
- review their health and safety risk assessment where a worker’s health condition makes them or others more vulnerable to workplace risks
- get professional advice on issues such as fitness to work or workplace adjustments, for example from an occupational health provider.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the preparation undertaken by businesses to support people that are vulnerable to covid-19.
Answered by Paul Scully
Employers have a duty under UK law to protect the health and safety of their workers and other people who might be affected by their business. This includes considering the risks that COVID-19 represents.
Our guidance outlines steps employers should consider, and employers should use the guidance to create specific plans for their business in consultation with those who are affected by their operations, including workers and contractors.
We know that every organisation is different. Each business’s plan will depend on the nature of the business, such as the sector, and the details of the workforce and operations.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government has taken to ensure the safety of (a) residents and (b) technicians during smart meter installation as the covid-19 restrictions are eased.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government is working closely with industry to support the adoption of guidance published on 11 May 2020 on working safely in people’s homes during COVID-19.
Energy UK and the Association of Meter Operators have also been working with their member organisations to support compliance with the Government guidance and share good practice related to all aspects of remobilisation, including undertaking smart meter installations in consumer’s homes. Energy suppliers, meter operators and energy networks will need to continue to have the health and wellbeing of their customers and staff as their central priority.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making it compulsory for all homes to have a smart meter at (a) the point of sale where the property is owner-occupied and (b) the change of tenancy where the property is privately rented.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government has consulted on proposals for a new policy framework to continue to drive market-wide rollout of smart meters after the current duty on energy suppliers ends in December 2020. This consultation sought views from stakeholders about what policy measures the Government should consider in order to complement the proposed market-wide rollout obligation.
We are carefully considering the range of responses and evidence submitted, ahead of publishing a Government response. We will see seek to do this as soon as is practicable.
In the meantime, the Government has updated the ‘How to Let’ and ‘How to Rent’ guides for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector to make clear the rights and responsibilities for accepting and installing a smart meter.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in circumstances in which a SMETS2 smart meter cannot be installed for a customer, whether it is Government policy to install a SMETS1 meter until a SMETS2 solution is found.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Energy suppliers are required by licence conditions to take all reasonable steps to provide second generation smart (SMETS2) meters to their customers.
SMETS1 meters will only normally be installed where energy suppliers are unable to provide a SMETS2 service, despite having taken all reasonable steps to provide one and the energy consumer prefers to have a SMETS1 service rather than wait for a SMETS2 service to become available .
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the level of debt that has accumulated in the energy sector since the covid-19 outbreak; and what plans he has to support (a) suppliers and (b) consumers in tackling that debt in the short term.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
On 19 March the Government established an industry-wide voluntary agreement to a set of principles for assisting energy consumers, through difficulties caused by Covid-19. The support offered is based on the individual circumstances of the customer and the systems, processes and capability of the supply company, but includes measures such as extending discretionary or friendly credit, adjusting payments and the recovery of debts and sending out a pre-loaded top up card for traditional prepay customers who are unable to top up.
Government has also introduced wider schemes to assist both consumers and businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak, including schemes to provide affordable government backed loans. Government has supported household incomes through the Job Retention Scheme to enable employers to furlough staff and the Self Employment Income Support scheme. Government has also introduced a number of temporary changes to Universal Credit to better support consumers on low incomes through the outbreak, including significant increases to payments.
Government and Ofgem have supported energy suppliers in their ability to manage costs and support their customers by providing a loan to the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) to ease the additional pressures on supplier Contracts for Difference (CfD) payments and the ability for suppliers to defer part of the network charges, in order to free-up short term working capital and enable the support of customers in need.
It is too early to say what level of debt has accumulated since the Covid-19 outbreak. Government continues to regularly engage with Ofgem energy suppliers and consumer advocates to understand the evolving picture.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential effect on levels of employment of making energy efficiency a national infrastructure priority; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Upgrading energy efficiency supports jobs and economic activity right across the country, from rural areas to large cities. In 2018, the domestic and non-domestic energy efficiency sector employed 153,600 people, with turnover of £21 billion and exports of almost £900 million. It also delivers a wide range of other economic benefits, for example: lower energy bills, reduced carbon emissions, fewer households in fuel poverty, lower costs of decarbonisation, and improved health and air quality.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made a recent estimate of the proportion of Energy Company Obligation funding spent on identifying suitable homes for energy efficiency measures.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The costs for identifying suitable homes has been estimated at around £257m for the three and a half year duration of ECO3 (2018 – 2022). That would be around 11% of the total estimated cost of the scheme.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to paragraph 2.15 of the Budget 2020 Red Book, what his timetable is for bringing forward amendments to the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme Regulations 2018.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
On 28th April 2020 BEIS published a Stakeholder Notice on changes to the Renewable Heat Incentive Schemes (RHI). The proposals were to extend the Domestic RHI for a further year, introduce a new allocation of Tariff Guarantees on the Non-Domestic RHI and extend current Tariff Guarantee commissioning deadlines. These proposed changes are designed to provide for a smooth transition into the future support schemes for low carbon heat and afford large scale projects impacted by delays to construction due to Covid-19 additional time to commission and receive RHI funding. This Notice closed to responses on 19th May 2020.
BEIS understands the importance of delivering as much certainty to industry as possible at this time. As such, having now analysed the responses received to the Notice, officials are working to publish the Government Response and make the necessary regulatory changes in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of low carbon heating technologies on new build homes; and what steps the Government is taking to provide financial support for those technologies.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In the Government’s Future Homes Standards consultation, which closed 7 February, we proposed that new homes built to this standard should have 75-80% fewer CO2 emissions than those built to current building regulation standards. An impact assessment on the Future Homes Standard will be published when we consult on the details of the policy proposals. We will carefully consider any impacts on costs and housing supply as part of the consultation.