Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 is taking steps to provide additional support to private rented tenants who have sub meters in their flats and are not entitled to the full £400 payment under the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government set out details of the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) and confirmed that further funding would be available to provide equivalent support of £400 for energy bills, for the domestic energy consumers not reached by EBSS. This will include those who do not have a domestic electricity meter or a direct relationship with an energy supplier.
The Government is working with a range of organisations to finalise the details and have the process up and running for applications this winter.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 the Chancellor of the Exchequer on taking steps to support immunocompromised people who are not able to leave their homes due to the continued risk of covid-19 infection in the context of rising energy prices.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and they will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is on top of the £800 of one-off support to eight million of the most vulnerable households to help with the cost of living.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 is taking steps to ensure that energy customers who fall into debt in winter 2022 are not transferred onto prepayment meters against their wishes.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Many customers prefer prepayment meters to help them budget. Ofgem’s License Conditions require suppliers to consider all options for appropriate debt management. This can include installing a prepayment meter, but suppliers have to consider whether this is safe and practicable, including whether a prepayment meter is appropriate for the specific customer. When making this assessment, suppliers are required to consider whether a consumer’s vulnerability makes a prepayment meter a poor choice, for example where medical equipment is required.
Ofgem rules restrict the imposition of a prepayment meter to repay debt except as a last resort.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Government has made of the adequacy of funding for (a) faith centres and (b) places of worship under the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a price reduction to all UK businesses and other non-domestic energy users including faith centres and places of worship on eligible energy supply contracts. This will help ensure they are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.
The exact value of the savings for each non-domestic customer will vary depending on their contract type, the tariff and the volume used, but the scheme is intended to ensure broad parity and fairness.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 the Government's decision to lift the ban on fracking on the UK's ability to meet its net zero targets.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Net Zero is a consideration in all relevant government decisions. The Government remains committed to net zero by 2050, but to get there we are going to need oil and gas.
Exploring domestic shale gas as a way of maximising domestic production could not only strengthen UK energy security but also reduce the amount of emissions-intensive gas imported from abroad.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what data his Department collects on the number of vulnerable people applying to energy providers for emergency credit to pay for energy bills.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Ofgem, the energy regulator, reported that in 2020 there were circa 4.1m electricity and 3.3m gas prepayment meter (PPM) customers in the UK.
Ofgem collects data on emergency credit use by the circa 2m smart PPMs for electricity and 1.5m smart gas PPMs at the eight largest suppliers, covering 94% of the market.
Supplier Licence Conditions provide for emergency and out of hours credit by default. Customers can also seek additional ‘discretionary credit’. In Q2 2022, 982,000 electricity and 586,000 gas customers on smart PPMs used emergency credit and 369,000 electricity and 175,000 gas customers used discretionary credit.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much Departmental underspend in the last financial year has been used to help provide military assistance in Ukraine.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy did not use any underspend in the last financial year to provide military assistance to Ukraine.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much money was spent on retro-fitting homes to improve their energy efficiency between April 2021 and 2022.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Between April 2021 and April 2022, the Government spent around £800 million through domestic retrofitting schemes, prioritising the worst performing homes and those on low incomes to improve their energy efficiency. In addition, the Energy Company Obligation scheme, worth around £1 billion a year, supports the installation of energy efficiency and heating measures in people’s homes in England, Scotland, and Wales, focused on low income and vulnerable households.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether Departmental funds allocated towards producing net zero carbon emissions by 2050 were returned unspent to the Exchequer in the last financial year.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Departmental underspend towards producing net zero carbon emissions by 2050 will be published in BEIS Annual Report & Accounts 2021-2022 later this year. The Department is not in a position to release underspent data yet, because the accounts are not finalised and audit is still ongoing.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 make it his policy not to approve future fracking projects.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In 2019, the Government confirmed that the pause on the exploration of shale gas reserves in England would remain in place unless and until further evidence was provided that shale gas extraction could be carried out safely. Any exploration or development of shale gas would need to meet rigorous safety and environmental protections both above ground and sub-surface.
In April, the Government commissioned the British Geological Survey to undertake a review of the latest scientific evidence around shale gas extraction. This review has now been completed and the Government is considering their detailed and technical report. This report will be published in due course. The Government’s policy remains unchanged.