Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 profitability of the services carried out by Royal Mail Group under the Universal Service Obligation.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Postal Services Act 2011 designates Ofcom as the independent regulator for the postal sector with a duty to ensure the provision of a financially sustainable and efficient universal postal service.
Under its duty, Ofcom monitors the service provided by Royal Mail and its financial performance and publishes its findings in an Annual Monitoring Update. This is focused on Royal Mail’s ‘Reported Business’, which includes all universal services, as well as other services which are delivered over the universal service network, namely access products and retail bulk mail.
Ofcom’s Annual Monitoring Update 2021-22 is available at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/postal-services/information-for-the-postal-industry/monitoring_reports.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 impact of acquisition of Royal Mail by Vesa Equity on the future of the Universal Service Obligation.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Universal Service Obligation is a legally binding commitment on the designated universal service provider and its ongoing provision would be required irrespective of ownership of the business.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 22 December 2022 to Question 110605 on Heating: Technology, whether his Department plans to take steps facilitate a UK-wide roll out of heat pipes utilising nano-boron technology.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Heat pipes are heat-conduction devices that employ phase transition of materials to remove heat from hot bodies. The use of nano-boron technology in heat pipes is in early-stage research which has not been demonstrated on a large scale. Consequently, there are no plans for a UK-wide roll out of heat pipes utilising nano-boron technology.
BEIS has not funded any work through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund specifically on heat pipes and expects that other projects funded will improve solutions such as heat pipes. One example is the £806,000 project by Oxford Nanosystems Ltd to develop nano technology coatings for heat exchangers, funded through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 22 December 2022 to Question 110605 on Heating: Technology, if his Department will take steps to provide grants to companies looking to establish facilities in the UK to manufacture heat pipes utilising nano-boron technology.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Heat pipes are heat-conduction devices that employ phase transition of materials to remove heat from hot bodies. The use of nano-boron technology in heat pipes is in early-stage research which has not been demonstrated on a large scale. Consequently, there are no plans for a UK-wide roll out of heat pipes utilising nano-boron technology.
BEIS has not funded any work through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund specifically on heat pipes and expects that other projects funded will improve solutions such as heat pipes. One example is the £806,000 project by Oxford Nanosystems Ltd to develop nano technology coatings for heat exchangers, funded through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 22 December 2022 to Question 110605 on Heating: Technology, how much funding his Department has provided to research nanotechnology in heat pipes through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund scheme in each year between 2009 and 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Heat pipes are heat-conduction devices that employ phase transition of materials to remove heat from hot bodies. The use of nano-boron technology in heat pipes is in early-stage research which has not been demonstrated on a large scale. Consequently, there are no plans for a UK-wide roll out of heat pipes utilising nano-boron technology.
BEIS has not funded any work through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund specifically on heat pipes and expects that other projects funded will improve solutions such as heat pipes. One example is the £806,000 project by Oxford Nanosystems Ltd to develop nano technology coatings for heat exchangers, funded through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 improve gas storage capacity in the UK.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Energy Security is a priority for this government. Gas storage has been an effective source of system flexibility.
The Government works with storage operators, as well as the regulatory community, to explore options around the role storage can play in supporting future gas system resilience.
The Government welcomes the decision taken by Centrica to reopen the Rough gas storage site at its own cost and has engaged with the company to understand its plans. Rough, at current capacity, will provide an approximately 50% increase in British gas storage capacity over this winter.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 improve gas storage capacity.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Energy Security is a priority for this government. Gas storage has been an effective source of system flexibility.
The Government works with storage operators, as well as the regulatory community, to explore options around the role storage can play in supporting future gas system resilience.
The Government welcomes the decision taken by Centrica to reopen the Rough gas storage site at its own cost and has engaged with the company to understand its plans. Rough, at current capacity, will provide a 50% increase in British gas storage capacity over this winter.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of nano-boron heat transfer technology for lowering the UK's overall carbon emissions.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The use of nanotechnology in heat pipes and heat exchange is an early stage research which has the potential to improve the efficiency of low carbon heat pumps and thereby reducing the resulting demand on the electricity system. The Department is funding some promising research through its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund scheme and hopes to see this leads to improvements in the technology in the near future.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of nano-boron heat transfer technology in lowering the UK's overall energy use.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The use of nanotechnology in heat pipes and heat exchange is an early stage research which has the potential to improve the efficiency of low carbon heat pumps and thereby reducing the resulting demand on the electricity system. The Department is funding some promising research through its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund scheme and hopes to see this leads to improvements in the technology in the near future.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 a strategy for the roll-out of nano-boron technology in heat pipes and heat exchange technologies across the UK.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The use of nanotechnology in heat pipes and heat exchange is an early stage research which has the potential to improve the efficiency of low carbon heat pumps and thereby reducing the resulting demand on the electricity system. The Department is funding some promising research through its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund scheme and hopes to see this leads to improvements in the technology in the near future.