Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
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 with the Competition and Markets Authority of the implications for their policies of mobile phone policies that (a) remove functionality when using third party components and (b) other potentially anti-competitive practices by (i) Apple and (ii) other companies in the technology sector.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the independent non-Ministerial department responsible for investigating competition issues in the UK. The Government has ensured that the CMA has significant powers to investigate and act if it finds that companies are behaving anti-competitively in a market.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
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 prevent printer manufacturers from locking devices to only being able to use approved printer cartridges.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is committed to tackling consumer rip-offs and bad business practices. The Government has ensured that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has significant powers and expertise to investigate such issues.
Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, it is a criminal offence to provide consumers with misleading information or omit important details about a product they are purchasing.
Under competition law, the CMA is responsible for investigating individual and market-wide competition issues. Consumers and businesses should report concerns about competition issues to the CMA.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what additional manufacturing capacity there is in the UK for manufacturing a vaccine for covid-19 once one is developed.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Vaccines Taskforce is working with the BioIndustry Association Taskforce to review existing domestic capability to manufacture vaccines, in response to Covid-19. The Taskforce is also reviewing options for increasing this capacity. The Business Secretary recently announced that the government will accelerate building the UK’s first Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre, which is based at Harwell in Oxfordshire. The government will invest up to a further £93 million in the Centre, ensuring that it opens in summer 2021 – a full 12 months ahead of schedule. The Centre – which is already under construction – will have capacity to produce enough vaccine doses to serve the entire UK population in as little as 6 months. While the Centre is being built, the government will establish a rapid deployment facility thanks to a further investment of £38 million to begin coronavirus vaccine manufacturing at scale from this summer. This facility will support efforts to ensure a vaccine is widely available to the public as soon as possible.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
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 he has taken to increase employment in (a) Haltemprice and Howden constituency, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and (c) the UK.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
As of 12th March, employment rates in the UK are at a record high at 76.5% and unemployment is at a near record low at 3.9%. 33 million people are now in work, which is 271,000 more than last year. The growth in employment has largely been driven by an increase in female full-time employment.
The Government is investing over £1.3 billion through Yorkshire and Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Growth Deals. This includes over £141 million through the Humber LEP that is providing financial assistance to local businesses, as well as improving infrastructure and skills. We have also established Enterprise Zones across the UK including in the Humber, which is the largest Enterprise Zone award in the country. The Zone has attracted business investment and new jobs to the area, such as at the Humber Enterprise Park in Brough in the Hon Gentleman’s constituency.
The Government-backed British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans programme provides loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their own businesses. Since 2012, 5,930 loans have been issued in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, totalling over £50 million. In the Haltemprice and Howden constituency, 110 loans have been issued, totalling over £1 million (as at end-December 2019).
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to to improve productivity in each region of the UK.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government is committed to levelling up all regions of the UK. We are working with local leaders and businesses on Local Industrial Strategies to boost productivity and living standards, whilst increasing investment in science, research, and development across the country.
These long-term strategies are based on robust evidence, providing an in-depth understanding of?local economies. Local Industrial Strategies explicitly focus on driving productivity by setting out the spatial impacts of national and local policy across our cities, towns, and rural areas.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she is taking to encourage the use of sites under the North Sea for carbon sequestration.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) will play a vital role in meeting our net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050, supporting both our Industrial Strategy and the revitalisation of the economies of the UK’s industrial areas. The Government is committed to deploying CCUS in the 2020s.
The Oil and Gas Authority issued its first CO2 storage licence to Pale Blue Dot Energy (Acorn) Ltd (PBD) for the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project in 2018.
In order to support the development of potential CO2 storage sites, the Government invested £2.5 million in the Energy Technologies Institute’s (ETI) CO2 Storage Appraisal Project which looked in detail at eight potential CO2 storage sites[1]. The UK also has the world-leading CO2-stored database[2] which is hosted and developed by the British Geological Survey and provides the data for over 500 potential offshore CO2 storage sites around the UK.
We are working closely with North Sea countries through the North Sea Basin Taskforce to share best practice and cooperate on North Sea CO2 storage. In October 2019, we cooperated with Norway and the Netherlands to achieve a provisional amendment to the London Protocol, allowing for the cross-border transport of CO2 for permanent storage, such as in the North Sea – a key breakthrough for UK projects and facilitating international CCUS deployment
[1] Energy Technologies Institute LLP, Strategic UK CCS Storage Appraisal, 2016
[2] CO2 Stored Database available at: http://www.co2stored.co.uk/home/index
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
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 has taken to support the tidal energy sector.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Renewable electricity generation has more than quadrupled since 2010. A record 52.6% of electricity came from low-carbon sources in 2018. We have the world’s largest offshore wind capacity at 9.8GW with CfD auction prices for offshore wind falling by two-thirds between 2015 and 2019.
Tidal energy could still have a potentially important role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK. It has to reduce its costs sufficiently, however, to compete with other renewable technologies.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to support small businesses in (a) Haltemprice and Howden constituency and (b) Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government is committed to supporting all entrepreneurs to start and grow a business, to create jobs and spread prosperity.
In the North Yorkshire and Humber regions businesses can access support through www.gov.uk, the Business Support Helpline (0300 456 3565) and their local Growth Hubs (York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Growth Hub and Humber Growth Hub). These are led and governed by the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding and the Humber Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). Growth Hubs provide a free, impartial, ‘single point of contact’ to help businesses in these areas identify and access the right support for them at the right time no matter their size or sector. In 2018-2019 the two Growth Hubs supported 14,939 businesses and helped 81 new businesses to start up.
In addition, within the Humber LEP area, the ‘Growing the Humber’ business investment programme has supported the creation of over 2,800 jobs to date. This signposts anyone interested to a range of business support information, as well as to organisations that provide a wide variety of services, including funding, support, advice, mentoring and business services who can help business start-up, survive and thrive.
The Department for International Trade in Yorkshire and the Humber works with a network of International Trade Advisers and partners across the region to enable local businesses to showcase their products and services overseas, with their Northern Powerhouse team running bespoke Trade missions. Since April 2016, there have been 68 Northern Powerhouse missions to 19 countries, supporting 1,252 companies. As we leave the EU, they will be working to deepen our trading ties with overseas markets to maximise export opportunities for small businesses.
The British Business Bank (BBB) with a consortia of LEPs manages the £400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), which celebrated the milestone of having invested £100m in 385 Northern-based SMEs. This support addresses the disparity in availability of regional finance was further bolstered last autumn, with a £100m Business Angel investment programme was launched to support clusters of business angels outside London.
The BBB has also established a UK-wide Network of regional managers working with business support partners, delivering advice tailored to local needs.
The Government-backed British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans programme provides loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their own businesses. Since 2012, 5,875 loans have been issued in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, totalling over £49m, and with an average loan amount of £8,459. In the Haltemprice and Howden constituency, 108 loans have been issued, totalling over £974,000 (as at end-December 2019).
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the effect of share-buy-back schemes on business investment.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Department commissioned research in 2018 to establish whether share buybacks are being misused to hit performance targets, inflate executive pay and reduce business investment. The research was published on 19 July 2019. It found no relationship between share repurchases and investment and no evidence to suggest that buybacks are being used systematically to artificially hit earnings per share (EPS) targets.
The research did, however, reveal that the presence of EPS targets in executive remuneration plans correlates with lower levels of investment. The study said that it would be premature to draw firm conclusions but that the area warranted further research. The Department intends to follow this up and plans to commission further research into whether there is a direct link (rather than through the use of buybacks) between executive pay targets and levels of investment and between performance targets and short-term executive decision-making.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
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 he has taken to increase employment in (a) Yorkshire and the Humber and (b) Haltemprice and Howden constituency.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Industrial Strategy is our long-term plan to boost productivity by backing businesses to create high-quality, well paid jobs throughout the United Kingdom, with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure. The Government is supporting businesses in both the Yorkshire and Humber and Haltemprice and Howden constituencies. For example, the Government-backed British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans programme provides loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their own businesses. Since 2012, 5,482 loans have been issued in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, totalling over £45m, and with an average loan amount of £8,249. In the Haltemprice and Howden constituency, 103 loans have been issued, totalling £926,277 (as at end-June 2019).
The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which brings together world class UK research with business investment to develop the technologies that will transform existing industries and create entirely new ones, has allocated to date £49,970,387.29 grants to establishments registered within Yorkshire and Humber.
The Government is investing over £1.3 billion through Yorkshire and Humber Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deals This is providing financial assistance to local businesses to help create jobs, as well as improving infrastructure and skills. It has also established Enterprise Zones across the region, including the largest award in the country to the Humber, which are attracting business investment and new jobs to the region.
Also, £13.6m has been awarded through Local Growth Funding for projects in this area to safeguard jobs from flood risks and for road improvements.