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 |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, how much each constituency was allocated from the Coast to Capital Backing Business Grants between 15 March 2020 and 19 May 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Coast to Capital Backing Business Grant is a £2 million fund set up to provide grants to independent small businesses and social enterprises (excluding charities) in Coast to Capital who have been affected by COVID-19 and was established to complement the schemes established by HM government.
The Scheme is administered by the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership and they will hold the information relating to the scheme recipients. They can be contacted at: funding@coast2capital.org.uk