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Written Question
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme: West Sussex
Wednesday 9th December 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) value of loans provided through the Business Interruption Loans Scheme to businesses in (i) West Sussex and (ii) Arundel and South Downs constituency since the introduction of that scheme.

Answered by Paul Scully

In the Chichester (West Sussex) constituency as of 15 November, 118 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £24,286,975. In the same constituency, 2106 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £63,038,524.

In the Arundel and South Downs constituency as of 15 November, 127 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £22,734,238. In the same constituency, 2089 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £61,589,232.


Written Question
Bounce Back Loan Scheme: West Sussex
Wednesday 9th December 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) value of loans provided through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme to businesses in (i) West Sussex and (ii) Arundel and South Downs constituency since the introduction of that scheme.

Answered by Paul Scully

In the Chichester (West Sussex) constituency as of 15 November, 118 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £24,286,975. In the same constituency, 2106 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £63,038,524.

In the Arundel and South Downs constituency as of 15 November, 127 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £22,734,238. In the same constituency, 2089 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £61,589,232.


Written Question
Computer Software
Friday 4th December 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

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 support the quantum computing industry.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government provides a range of support measures for the digital economy and the tech sector. From its inception in 2014, the UK’s ten-year National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP) is set to provide £1bn public and private funding for the development of quantum technologies.

The programme funds a range of activities to support the growth of the quantum computing industry, including £61m for collaborative technology development through the quantum technology hubs. The Quantum Computing and Simulation (QCS) Hub has 17 academic and 29 industrial partners across the breadth of the UK. The QCS Hub comprises a partnership resource fund to aid collaborations with new partners and to overcome potential commercialisation problems in the emerging QC landscape.

The Wave 3 Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Commercialising Quantum Technologies Challenge (ISCF) funds projects to support commercialisation, and supply chain development, or bring consortia together to explore applications (representing c£35m for quantum computing and related components to-date).

Within the recently launched National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) £93m has been allocated to help deliver quantum computing capabilities for the UK and support the growth of the industry. The vision is to be a world class centre, where government, academia and industry work collaboratively to develop quantum computing, securing this strategically important technology for the benefit of the UK.

The Centre will support the development of a quantum ready economy; one that can take advantage of the opportunities presented by quantum computing to generate and retain value across the economy, achieve societal benefits and maintain national security.

In addition, two EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships are focussed on growing the quantum computing software industry in the UK and developing quantum computing hardware (between UCL and Google (£1.9m), and between St Andrews and MSquared (£1.4m).


Written Question
Artificial Intelligence
Friday 4th December 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

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 support the artificial intelligence industry.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Industrial Strategy AI and Data Grand Challenge sets out the Government’s vision to make the UK a global centre for AI and data innovation, which includes developing the skills that will contribute to building the best environment for AI development and deployment.

In addition, The AI Sector Deal brings together commitments from Government, Industry and Academia in a near £0.95bn package of support to promote the adoption and use of AI.

The attached Annex lists the achievements so far under the Sector Deal.

We are refreshing the Industrial Strategy to reflect the UK’s changing priorities, our new relationship with the European Union and responding to the ongoing global pandemic. It will build on our achievements, enable the UK to maintain its position as a world leader in AI and support ground-breaking innovations, whilst helping to drive economic growth across the country.


Written Question
Spaceflight: Cornwall and Sutherland
Friday 4th December 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress his Department is making in delivering the proposed spaceport in (a) Cornwall and (b) Sutherland.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The UK Space Agency is monitoring progress across all potential UK spaceports, and are aiming for the first UK launches to take place in 2022.

UK Space Agency awarded £7.35m to Virgin Orbit to support their plans to launch from Cornwall, with the spaceport being delivered separately by Spaceport Cornwall. The UK Space Agency engage regularly with Cornwall Spaceport as part of their oversight of the Virgin Orbit grant and they have recently finalised their Airport Development Implementation Plan for approval. Once approved, works can commence on airport development to meet the requirements for launch operations.

The Government also provided £2.5m to Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to develop Space Hub Sutherland in Scotland, and £5.5m to Orbex to build a new rocket to launch from Sutherland. HIE have successfully secured planning approval from Highland Council, and Orbex are making good progress with developing their launch vehicle.


Written Question
Bounce Back Loan Scheme: Sussex
Monday 9th November 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the number of loans provided through the Bounce Back Loan scheme to businesses in Sussex.

Answered by Paul Scully

A breakdown on the number of loans provided through the Bounce Back Loan scheme as of 4 October in the Sussex constituencies is in the table below.

Constituency

Number of Loans Offered

Value of Loans Offered (£)

Arundel and South Downs

2,558

74,801,366

Bexhill and Battle

2,283

64,135,053

Bognor Regis and Littlehampton

1,559

40,215,614

Brighton, Kemptown

1,456

39,190,890

Brighton, Pavilion

3,007

90,091,158

Chichester

2,508

75,203,785

Crawley

1,724

51,495,006

East Worthing and Shoreham

1,853

51,588,794

Eastbourne

1,828

50,350,115

Hastings and Rye

2,230

60,169,178

Horsham

2,195

66,067,315

Hove

2,733

80,679,774

Lewes

1,813

51,297,358

Mid Sussex

2,128

61,380,476

Wealden

2,425

72,018,072

Worthing West

1,836

50,747,561

Total

34,136

979,431,515


Written Question
Hydrogen
Monday 12th October 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the UK's hydrogen strategy; and what steps he is taking to formalise cross-departmental working on the Government's hydrogen strategy.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

We have committed to publish a UK hydrogen strategy in early 2021 and development is well under way.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is Chair of the Climate Action Implementation Cabinet Committee (CAI) which covers issues relating to net zero. BEIS officials and I also continue to work across Government departments, bilaterally and through governance arrangements at official level. This includes the Climate National Strategy Implementation Group, reporting to the Cabinet Secretary involving Directors General across Whitehall, chaired by the DG Energy Transformation & Clean Growth and the Hydrogen Advisory Council, co-chaired by myself as Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, and Sinead Lynch, UK Country Chair of Shell launched in July 2020.


Written Question
Hydrogen
Monday 14th September 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the UK's hydrogen strategy; and what steps he is taking to formalise cross-departmental working on that strategy.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

The Government is committed to the development of hydrogen as a decarbonised energy carrier for the UK and are currently developing our strategic approach to hydrogen. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is Chair of the Climate Action Implementation Cabinet Committee (CAI) which covers topics including hydrogen. BEIS officials and I also continue to work across government departments, including an on-going review of governance arrangements, to ensure we work effectively to develop new policy to help bring forward the technologies and supply chain we will need to grow the UK hydrogen economy.


Written Question
Hydrogen
Monday 14th September 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to promote the UK's hydrogen sector at COP26.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

We are exploring ways to promote UK hydrogen activity and enhance international cooperation at COP26.

COP provides an ideal platform to showcase UK's unique hydrogen opportunities. Harnessing UK geographical advantages such as offshore wind resource and potential CO2 storage for low carbon hydrogen production, with deployment across the energy system to enable deep decarbonisation in line with our net zero commitment.

Options under discussion include demonstration of hydrogen appliances developed under the Hy4Heat programme, as part of the BEIS Energy Innovation Portfolio; representation from leading UK hydrogen companies and projects; and discussion of international cooperation to accelerate clean energy innovation, including hydrogen. We will continue to develop this thinking in the coming months.


Written Question
Hydrogen Advisory Council
Monday 14th September 2020

Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish future meeting dates of the Hydrogen Advisory Council.

Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng

The inaugural meeting of the Hydrogen Advisory Council (HAC) was on 20 July 2020. It is expected to meet quarterly for at least the next two years with the next meeting scheduled on 14 October 2020.