Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help stop the sale of counterfeit postage stamps online.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As a private business, the operation of Royal Mail’s products and services, including measures to tackle counterfeit stamps, is a matter for the company’s management. The Government is not involved in Royal Mail’s operational decisions.
Advice for consumers on identifying and reporting stamp fraud is available on Royal Mail’s website: www.royalmail.com/report-stamp-fraud.
Royal Mail introduced barcoded stamps earlier this year to enable added security features to help tackle stamp fraud. Information is available at www.royalmail.com/sending/barcoded-stamps.
Consumers can access free advice on reporting scams through the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/scams/get-help-with-online-scams/. In Scotland, consumers should report to Advice Direct Scotland (www.consumeradvice.scot) and Police Scotland.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of local skills shortages on achieving net zero targets.
Answered by Graham Stuart
BEIS is working with the Department for Education and local partners to ensure green skills are considered through Local Skills Improvement Plans. The Secretary of State for Education may only approve a plan, if satisfied that net zero targets, adaptation to climate change, and other environmental goals, have been considered. To build its understanding of green skills strengths and needs, the Government has reviewed Local Skills Reports across England and is working with the Green Jobs Delivery Group to explore how central Government, local Government and businesses, can further support local areas to deliver a successful labour market transition to net zero.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 ensure that the Energy Efficiency Taskforce takes into account local government input.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Autumn Statement announced a new national ambition to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels.
In order to support the delivery of this target, a new Energy Efficiency Taskforce will be established. More details on the scope and membership of the Taskforce will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether local government representatives will form part of the Energy Efficiency Taskforce.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Autumn Statement announced a new national ambition to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels.
In order to support the delivery of this target, a new Energy Efficiency Taskforce will be established. More details on the scope and membership of the Taskforce will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Energy Efficiency Taskforce will consider the redeployment of social housing decarbonisation funding.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Autumn Statement announced a new national ambition to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels.
In order to support the delivery of this target, a new Energy Efficiency Taskforce will be established. More details on the scope and membership of the Taskforce will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 redeploying existing social housing energy efficiency funding.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The 2019 Conservative Manifesto committed to a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a 10-year period to improve the energy performance of social homes, reducing fuel bills and carbon emissions.
The total committed grant funding for the SHDF and associated Demonstrator to date is just over £1bn. Due to demand, the level of grant funding awarded for previous competitions exceeded the initial committed amounts of£50m for the SHDF Demonstrator and £160m for Wave 1, with around £62m and around £179m of grant funding awarded respectively. The recent Wave 2.1 competition will allocate up to £800m of grant funding.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 the report by UK100, entitled End the wait, Insulate, Social housing energy efficiency and the energy crisis, published on 16 November 2022, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The 2019 Conservative Manifesto committed to a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a 10-year period to improve the energy performance of social homes. Grant funding allocated to SHDF has totalled over £1bn.
In the Autumn Statement the Government announced £6 billion of new Government funding that will be made available from 2025 to 2028 for energy efficiency. The design of future waves of the SHDF will consider all relevant evidence to ensure effective delivery.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre plans to update the list of critical minerals; and whether it will include hafnium on that list.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Many minerals, such as Hafnium, have important uses but, by necessity of focus, only some are “critical”. These “critical minerals” are not only vitally important: they are also experiencing major risks to their security of supply. These risks can be caused by combinations of factors including, but not limited to, rapid demand growth, high concentration of supply chains in particular countries, or elevated levels of price volatility.
Earlier this year, BEIS commissioned the British Geological Survey to carry out the UK’s first criticality assessment and it defined 18 critical minerals with the highest supply risk and economic importance; it did not identify Hafnium as a critical mineral on this basis.
The Government has not made an assessment of the impact of rising prices of Hafnium on UK superalloy producers. However, we recognise that the UK need on critical minerals and its international markets can change, and therefore the assessment will be reviewed regularly through the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre (CMIC). The next review will be completed in Spring 2023.
For many minerals, we will continue to rely upon and champion an effective and efficient market. Where the market already provides a responsible and resilient supply, we see no case to interfere. Where the markets are less developed, are less transparent or have issues, we want to work with business and international partners to make markets more resilient for the long term.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 impact of rising prices of hafnium on UK superalloy producers.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Many minerals, such as Hafnium, have important uses but, by necessity of focus, only some are “critical”. These “critical minerals” are not only vitally important: they are also experiencing major risks to their security of supply. These risks can be caused by combinations of factors including, but not limited to, rapid demand growth, high concentration of supply chains in particular countries, or elevated levels of price volatility.
Earlier this year, BEIS commissioned the British Geological Survey to carry out the UK’s first criticality assessment and it defined 18 critical minerals with the highest supply risk and economic importance; it did not identify Hafnium as a critical mineral on this basis.
The Government has not made an assessment of the impact of rising prices of Hafnium on UK superalloy producers. However, we recognise that the UK need on critical minerals and its international markets can change, and therefore the assessment will be reviewed regularly through the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre (CMIC). The next review will be completed in Spring 2023.
For many minerals, we will continue to rely upon and champion an effective and efficient market. Where the market already provides a responsible and resilient supply, we see no case to interfere. Where the markets are less developed, are less transparent or have issues, we want to work with business and international partners to make markets more resilient for the long term.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 potential merits of including hafnium on the list of critical minerals.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Many minerals, such as Hafnium, have important uses but, by necessity of focus, only some are “critical”. These “critical minerals” are not only vitally important: they are also experiencing major risks to their security of supply. These risks can be caused by combinations of factors including, but not limited to, rapid demand growth, high concentration of supply chains in particular countries, or elevated levels of price volatility.
Earlier this year, BEIS commissioned the British Geological Survey to carry out the UK’s first criticality assessment and it defined 18 critical minerals with the highest supply risk and economic importance; it did not identify Hafnium as a critical mineral on this basis.
The Government has not made an assessment of the impact of rising prices of Hafnium on UK superalloy producers. However, we recognise that the UK need on critical minerals and its international markets can change, and therefore the assessment will be reviewed regularly through the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre (CMIC). The next review will be completed in Spring 2023.
For many minerals, we will continue to rely upon and champion an effective and efficient market. Where the market already provides a responsible and resilient supply, we see no case to interfere. Where the markets are less developed, are less transparent or have issues, we want to work with business and international partners to make markets more resilient for the long term.