Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 (a) the average time taken by HM Land Registry to decide on an application and (b) trends in that time so taken in the last three years.
Answered by Paul Scully
HM Land Registry (HMLR) processed over 70,000 requests to search or change the Land Register every day in 2020/21.
Searches constitute approximately 80% of requests. Over 90% of these are delivered instantly via digital services, with almost all of the remainder delivered within three days.
Applications to change the Register make up the other 20% of requests and vary widely in type and complexity. Over the last quarter, on average, across all applications, changes took less than 5 weeks to be processed. Over a third are completed within a week. However, the most complex applications (around 1.5% of cases) took around 26 weeks on average.
Precise comparisons with three years ago are not straightforward due to differences in processes for customers and categorisation of case type. Overall, average processing times are trending higher than the last three years, partly due to COVID-19 restrictions, and partly because HMLR has chosen to rebalance its resources to prevent waiting times for complex applications increasing further. Whilst this has increased the overall average waiting time for all applications to change the Register, HMLR believes that this is the right balance to ensure it is serving all its customer needs.
Because applications to change the Register occur after the transaction is completed, the time taken to process them should not impact a property sale. However, if this is not the case, customers can ask for their application to be fast tracked and processed within 10 working days for no extra charge. HMLR reported in its 2020/21 Annual Report and Accounts that it is processing nearly four times as many requests to fast track applications for its customers as it did prior to the pandemic, reflecting the unique circumstances facing the organisation and the property market overall.
HM Land Registry is making significant investment in long-term transformation to significantly improve customer waiting times in the future through greater digitisation and automation, and building more expert land registration capacity.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to progress the Energy White Paper published in December 2020.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Delivering the Energy White Paper’s policy commitments is a key priority for the Department and subject to regular reporting as part of the implementation of my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan.
Since the White Paper’s publication, we have launched the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy. Also, earlier this year, the Department announced up to £95 million of Government investment for two new offshore wind port hubs to be constructed on the Humber and Teesside. In addition, GE Renewable Energy have announced an investment in a major new offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing plant, the first investment at the Teesworks Offshore Manufacturing Centre. We will deliver other commitments in due course, including the publication of the Heat and Buildings Strategy. The Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan and Energy White Paper also confirmed our commitment to publish the UK’s first ever Hydrogen Strategy, which we will bring forward soon.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 plans to evaluate the potential merits for wider society of smart meter infrastructure as part of the Smart Energy Savings Innovation Competition.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Smart Energy Savings (SENS) competition is supporting the development, trialling and evaluation of innovative products and services that use smart meters to help consumers to reduce their energy consumption.
As part of the SENS competition, the Government has commissioned a full evaluation of products and services supported by the project. This will be published in due course, following the conclusion of consumer trials in 2022.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 Energy White Paper published in December 2020, what recent steps his Department has taken to support the progress of Energy Local Clubs.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We do not have the specific information requested on the number of households involved in Energy Local Clubs. However, the Government recognises that community energy can play a role in supporting the UK’s national net zero targets and the Net Zero Strategy will set out further information on how we intend to work with community groups to achieve net zero.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households in (a) Ceredigion, (b) Wales and (c) the UK receive their energy from an Energy Local Club.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We do not have the specific information requested on the number of households involved in Energy Local Clubs. However, the Government recognises that community energy can play a role in supporting the UK’s national net zero targets and the Net Zero Strategy will set out further information on how we intend to work with community groups to achieve net zero.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households in (a) Ceredigion, (b) Wales and (c) the UK have joined Energy Local Clubs since 2019.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We do not have the specific information requested on the number of households involved in Energy Local Clubs. However, the Government recognises that community energy can play a role in supporting the UK’s national net zero targets and the Net Zero Strategy will set out further information on how we intend to work with community groups to achieve net zero.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 Answer of 28 April 2021 to Question 184534 on Biofuels and Carbon Capture and Storage, whether biomass with carbon capture and storage was discussed during his meetings with representatives of Drax Power Ltd in 2020.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Sustainable biomass is making an important contribution in our efforts to decarbonise the economy. Ministerial colleagues and I have met with a number of organisations to discuss biomass, and biomass with carbon capture and storage on a number of occasions during the period in question. This is a broad and wide ranging area which may also have featured in other ministerial meetings.
The Department regularly publishes a list of ministerial meetings which can be accessed here, https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 Answer of 28 April 2021 to Question 184534 on Biofuels and Carbon Capture and Storage, on how many occasions did (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department meet with representatives of Drax during (i) October, (ii) November and (iii) December 2021: and if he will publish details of what was (A) discussed at each meeting and (B) who attended.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Sustainable biomass is making an important contribution in our efforts to decarbonise the economy. There are currently no plans to meet with Drax in October, November or December 2021.
The Department regularly publishes a list of ministerial meetings which can be accessed here, https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 Answer of 28 April 2021 to Question 184534 on Biofuels and Carbon Capture and Storage, how many times did (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department meet with representatives of (i) Drax Power Ltd and (ii) environmental NGOs to discuss biomass; and what plans he has for future discussions with environmental NGOs on that topic.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Sustainable biomass is making an important contribution in our efforts to decarbonise the economy. Ministerial colleagues and I have met with a number of organisations to discuss biomass, on a number of occasions during the period in question, and we will continue to engage on this issue. This is a broad and wide ranging area which may also have featured in other ministerial meetings.
The Department regularly publishes a list of ministerial meetings which can be accessed here, https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 Answer of 28 April 2021 to Question 184534 on Biofuels and Carbon Capture and Storage, on how many occasions (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department met representatives of Drax Power Ltd in (i) July, (ii) August and (iii) September 2020; and (A) what was discussed and (B) who attended each of those meetings.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Ministerial colleagues and I have met with a number of organisations to discuss biomass, on a number of occasions during the period in question. This is a broad and wide ranging area which may also have featured in other ministerial meetings.
The Department regularly publishes a list of ministerial meetings which can be accessed here, https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings