Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating additional funding for volunteer led community transport schemes.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department makes available over £3 million each year to community transport operators through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG), supporting them to continue delivering inclusive and accessible transport across the country.
An uplift of 60% has been added to BSOG claims for community transport operators until 31 March 2025. This means operators will receive £1.60 for every £1 claimed, reflecting the increased costs faced by the sector.
We also encourage Local Transport Authorities to engage with community transport operators when preparing their Bus Service Improvement Plans which are vital in setting out an areas’ long term plans for bus services and how they will be improved.
The bus fare cap, only available in England, has proven popular with bus passengers in communities across England, particularly in rural and non-metropolitan areas, where our statistics show the overall price of bus fares between September 2022 and September 2023 dropped by almost 11%.
Our £20 million Rural Mobility Fund (RMF) in England, also devolved, is supporting 16 innovative, demand-led minibus trials in rural and suburban areas across 16 local authorities in England. These pilots are exploring whether Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) can serve these communities more effectively than traditional public transport solutions alone.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will instruct Ofgem to update the (a) Holistic Network Design and (b) Centralised Strategic Network Plan to ensure a greater proportion of future electricity transmission infrastructure is built offshore.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Electricity System Operator (ESO) is responsible for assessing and recommending transmission reinforcement options.
Its Holistic Network Design recommendations give equal consideration to impacts on communities, cost to consumers, environmental impacts, and deliverability.
The ESO has assessed a wide range of options for each network need identified in order to minimise impacts against the four criteria. This includes assessing both on and offshore options. Where an offshore route performs best, the ESO recommends this.
The ESO will publish the transitional Centralised Strategic Network Plan on March 19th, which will include details of its recommended design options.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate her Department has made of the maximum capacity of offshore wind that could be funded through the Contracts for Difference allocation round six.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Contracts for Difference auctions have successfully used competition to procure 30GW of new renewable capacity across all technologies, including around 20GW of offshore wind, since their introduction, while driving costs down for consumers. In any round, the volume of capacity that is successful for each technology, including offshore wind, depends on a range of factors including the volume of eligible applications, and the prices that applicants bid at. We cannot pre-judge the outcome of allocation round six.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an estimate of the potential additional costs for offshoring the required new grid capacity between north east (a) Scotland and (b) England.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Electricity network planning is a function of the independent Electricity System Operator (ESO). Through the Holistic Network Design (HND), the transitional Centralised Strategic Network Plan and in the future through the Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP), the ESO considers the best approach to coordinate transmission infrastructure to balance community impact, environmental impact, cost and deliverability and reduce the amount of planned infrastructure. Additional costs will vary depending on the specific infrastructure considered, however subsea cabling is several times more expensive than overhead lines, due in part to lower capacity of offshore circuits (2GW in comparison to 6GW for onshore alternatives).
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will instruct Ofgem to publish an estimate of the impact of the cost of future transmission charges for renewable companies in more expensive Transmission Network Use of System Charges zones on the agreed strike price for the fifth Contracts for Difference (CfD) Allocation Round.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government acknowledges the uncertainty that renewable developers face in pricing in the cost of future transmission charges (TNUoS), and that this presents particular challenges for transmission-connected projects in more expensive TNUoS zones. Whilst network charges are a matter for Ofgem, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has overall responsibility for Contracts for Difference allocation rounds. The Department continues to assess implications of charging arrangements on CfD generators and will continue to engage with Ofgem to mitigate the impacts where possible and appropriate.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of her net zero policies on trends in the level of investment in renewable energy.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government continues to support investment in renewables, as demonstrated in the Spring Budget announcement, where it confirmed the biggest ever budget for the Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6, at £1,025 million.
Additionally, Government announced an increase of up to £120 million to the £960 million Green Industry Growth Accelerator fund, further supporting the development of Wind and Networks manufacturing supply chains across the UK. These announcements reinforce efforts to reduce network connection times and make investment tax measures permanent. Since 2010, renewables support has attracted around £120 billion of new investment, alongside around £80 billion of UK levy-funded support.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the switching off of renewable wind power because of grid capacity on household bills.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to him on 7 March to Question UIN 16816.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many projects that have been granted grid access which have (a) stalled and (b) ceased entirely have been removed from the national grid connection queue in the last year.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Data from the Electricity System Operator (ESO) shows that 31 projects have been removed from the transmission connections queue since 1 March 2023. Of these 31 projects, 13 terminated their agreements voluntarily as part of the ESO’s Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC) Amnesty.
As set out at Budget, the ESO has begun the process of inserting delivery milestones into over 1000 connection agreements, enabling it to terminate stalled projects from Autumn 2024. The Government will also work with the ESO and network companies to outline further reforms by summer 2024 to raise barriers to entering and remaining in the queue.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of imposing financial penalties on network companies that fail to deliver grid connections on schedule.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The regulatory framework for electricity network connections is a matter for the independent regulator, Ofgem. As set out in the Connections Action Plan[1], Ofgem is undertaking a full review of existing incentives and obligations on parties, including network companies, relating to connections to ensure they are fit for purpose. This will include consideration of the use of financial incentives and penalties, as well as other regulatory levers. Ofgem will report its findings by the end of June.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much funding Angus constituency has received from (a) all funding schemes put in place to replace EU structural funding, (b) the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, (c) the Levelling-Up Fund and (d) the Long-Term Plan for Towns in each year since 2016.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
There is no single fund that directly replaces EU structural funding. Levelling up funding comprises various measures that include, for example, the Levelling Up Fund, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Long Term Plan for Towns, the Community Renewal Fund, the Community Ownership Fund, and pre-existing programmes such as the City Region and Growth Deals. These come alongside the largest block grant ever for the devolved administration in Scotland which the Chancellor recently confirmed, and other measures such as the Green Freeports and Investment Zones Programme which cover four areas across Scotland.
In general, details of funding support are held at local authority rather than constituency level. The UK remained a member of the European Union until January 2020.
Since then, Angus Council has been awarded nearly £5 million from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, as well as £26.5 million from the Tay Cities Deal. It has also received nearly £300k from the Community Ownership Fund awarded to a project in Brechin for Davidson Legacy Cottage SCIO, and over £230k awarded via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme including to replace the 3G pitch at Forfar Community Football Trust, for floodlights at Station Park and Market Muir, and for solar panels at Arbroath Football Club. At Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced that Arbroath in Angus will be a Long-Term Plan for Towns location and will receive £20 million of funding.