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Written Question
UK Emissions Trading Scheme
Tuesday 11th January 2022

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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 decision of 14 December 2021 by the UK ETS Authority not to intervene in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme after the cost containment mechanism was triggered, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of that decision with the Government's policy on support for industry in an energy transition to a low carbon economy; and what the criteria are for intervention by the UK ETS Authority to be approved.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The UK ETS Authority determined that a decision to not intervene on this occasion would uphold the objectives of the UK ETS as a market-based approach to reducing emissions and incentivising participants to find the most cost-effective solutions to decarbonise. The Government has set up multiple funding streams to support industry’s transition to net zero, including the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund worth £315 million and £1 billion set aside for the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage Fund.

Should the CCM be triggered again, the UK ETS Authority will consider up to date evidence from the market that enables a decision to be taken based on the most relevant factors affecting UK ETS allowance prices at that time.


Written Question
Iron and Steel: Manufacturing Industries
Friday 9th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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 the opportunities to create new, highly skilled jobs through the decarbonisation of the UK steel industry.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

Levelling up and ensuring high-quality employment across every region of the UK is a key element in the Government’s Plan for Growth. It is estimated that the UK low-carbon economy could grow more than four times faster than the rest of the economy between 2015 and 2030 and support up to 2 million jobs. The Government will ensure that the benefits of our growing low-carbon economy are shared fairly in every region.

The Steel Council offers the forum for government, industry and trade unions to work in partnership on the shared objective of creating an achievable, long-term plan to support the sector’s transition to a competitive, sustainable and low carbon future. The UK steel sector will be given the opportunity to bid into industrial fuel switching innovation programmes under the £1bn NZIP portfolio, which is intended to promote switching away from more carbon-intensive fuel sources. The Government has also announced a £250 million Clean Steel Fund to support the UK steel sector to transition to lower carbon iron and steel production, through investment in new technologies and processes.


Written Question
Iron and Steel: Manufacturing Industries
Friday 9th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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 the opportunities for hydrogen-based steelmaking projects to help level up the UK.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, published on 17 March, commits to work with the newly constituted Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’.

Hydrogen-based steelmaking, CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation and storage),

and electrification are some of the technological approaches being examined as part of this process. The Steel Council offers the forum for government, industry and trade unions to work in partnership on the shared objective of creating an achievable, long-term plan to support the sector’s transition to a competitive, sustainable and low carbon future.

In order to support these efforts, the Government has announced a £250 million Clean Steel Fund to support the UK steel sector to transition to lower carbon iron and steel production, through investment in new technologies and processes. The decarbonisation of the steel sector and industry more widely will also be supported through the £1 billion CCUS Infrastructure Fund (CIF) and £240m Net-Zero Hydrogen Fund.


Written Question
Hydrogen
Friday 9th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to publish the Hydrogen Strategy; and (b) and whether that strategy will be backed by funding to launch and expand new hydrogen projects in the UK.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

My Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan and Energy White Paper confirmed our commitment to publish the UK’s first ever Hydrogen Strategy.

The Strategy will set out how we intend to meet our aim, working with industry, to deliver 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for use across the economy.

Alongside this, we will consult on the design and delivery of the £240m Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF) for co-investment in new low carbon hydrogen production and on our preferred hydrogen business model to overcome the cost gap between low carbon hydrogen and higher carbon counterfactuals fuels. As set out in the 10 Point Plan these are some of the key measures to bring through low carbon hydrogen projects and support the 2030 ambition.


Written Question
Industry: Hydrogen
Friday 9th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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 future abilities of hydrogen projects such as HyNet in the North West to help decarbonise (a) the UK’s steel sector and (b) other heavy industries.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, published on 17 March 2021, sets out how industry can decarbonise in line with net zero, while remaining competitive and without pushing emissions abroad. This strategy marks the beginning of a process which will see wide deployment of key abatement technologies across industry, and refinement of Government’s policy approach to incentivise and support decarbonisation.

Hydrogen has significant potential for decarbonising industry across many different processes and sectors. We are supporting the scale up of low carbon hydrogen production, for use across the economy, through schemes such as the £240m Net Zero Hydrogen Fund. There will be further discussion of the role of hydrogen in decarbonising industry in the forthcoming Hydrogen Strategy.

UK steel plays a critical role in the economy as a foundation industry and the Government remains committed to the steel industry and it having a decarbonised future, supporting local economic growth and our levelling-up agenda. Hydrogen-based steelmaking is one of the possible decarbonisation pathways for the steel sector that is being considered.


Written Question
Energy: Council Housing
Tuesday 6th July 2021

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to improve the energy efficiency of homes through local authorities.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Government is funding a number of schemes as part of its commitment to retrofit homes to cut energy bills for households and to make them greener on the path to Net Zero.

The Local Authority Delivery Scheme (LAD), which supports projects to install energy efficiency measures such as various types of insulation, and low-carbon heating systems for low-income households, has already provided £500million to Local Authorities for upgrades to low-income households across England, and is being delivered up to December 2021.

On 16th June 2021, the Government launched the Sustainable Warmth Competition enabling Local Authorities to apply for further funding under the £200million Local Authority Delivery Phase 3 scheme and from an initial allocation of £150million for the Home Upgrade Grant Phase 1 scheme, for delivery up to March 2023.

In addition, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator has awarded £62million of funding to social landlords across England and Scotland to test innovative approaches to retrofitting at scale, seeing over 2300 social homes improved to at least EPC band C.   The Government has announced around a further £160million for the first wave of the £3.8bn manifesto commitment in financial year 21/22, delivering up to March 2023.

The Government announced in the Sustainable Warmth Strategy a four-year, £4 billion successor scheme to ECO, to accelerate our efforts to improve homes to meet fuel poverty targets.   ECO will continue to be an obligation on suppliers.


Written Question
Night-time Economy: Door Supervisors
Friday 2nd July 2021

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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 officials in his Department have had with colleagues in the Home Office and the Treasury on the shortage of door supervisor staff available to work in the night time economy sector.

Answered by Paul Scully

We regularly engage with hospitality businesses and are aware of their concerns to understand the issue of a shortage of door security staff. We are working with Home Office, who are responsible for the policy on the regulation of the private sector security industry, including door supervisors, to keep the situation under review and assess the scale of the problem.


Written Question
Climate Change
Tuesday 29th September 2020

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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

What steps his Department is taking to tackle climate change.

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

We are taking action now to meet our net zero target by delivering world-leading clean growth. This year, the government has set out over £5 billion for our low-carbon economy. We will be bringing forward sectoral decarbonisation plans, including an Energy White Paper, to stay on track as we lead global climate action through our COP26 and G7 Presidencies.


Written Question
Fireworks: Sales
Monday 11th May 2020

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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 restrict the availability of firework sales on high streets.

Answered by Paul Scully

The sale of fireworks is already restricted to seasonal periods unless a retailer is specifically licensed by their Local Authority to sell outside those periods.

Without a licence, retailers can only sell fireworks from 15th October to 10th November; the 3 days prior to and including Chinese New Year, Diwali; and the 6 days up to and including New Year. There is also a ban on the sale of fireworks to any person under the age of 18.

There are no plans for further restrictions.


Written Question
Fireworks: Noise
Monday 11th May 2020

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to (a) prevent and (b) tackle firework noise complaints during the covid-19 lockdown.

Answered by Paul Scully

The Government expects the public to use fireworks in a responsible and law-abiding way and to be considerate of their neighbours, particularly during the response to CoVid19.

The law sets noise limits for fireworks, available for consumers to buy. There is also a curfew on their use between 11pm and 7am, except for 5th November, Diwali, New Year and Chinese New Year when this is extended to 12 am and 1 am.

Local Authorities are continuing to deal with any noise complaints during this period including any caused by inconsiderate use of fireworks.