Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2018 to Question 128954, what assessment he has made of the effect of increased electricity interconnection on (a) net employment in and (b) GDP contribution from the electricity generating sector.
Answered by Claire Perry
New interconnectors create jobs and contribute to GDP in their construction and ongoing operation. However, we do not hold sufficiently disaggregated data on employment in and GDP contribution from the electricity sector to make a quantitative assessment of the impact of increased interconnection on these points.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of increased electricity interconnection on welfare.
Answered by Claire Perry
Ofgem considers interconnectors’ contribution to welfare as part of their assessment for regulatory approval.
The first round of projects that received regulatory approval from Ofgem showed GB consumer welfare benefits of up to £12 billion over their 25 year regulated lifetimes.
The second round of projects that received regulatory approval from Ofgem (GridLink, NeuConnect, and NorthConnect) showed GB consumer welfare benefits of over £7 billion over their lifetimes.
The full details of Ofgem’s assessments for these projects, and a small number of other projects which have been assessed separately, can be found at
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/electricity/transmission-networks/electricity-interconnectors.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether staff based in UKRep Brussels were offered group therapy sessions by counsellors following the EU referendum result.
Answered by Alan Duncan
No
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the UK has contributed to the European Investment Bank since that bank's inception.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Throughout its membership, the UK has made payments totaling c.£1.8bn to the capital of the EIB.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how much foreign direct investment there was into the UK from the Republic of Ireland in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Graham Stuart
In 2016/17 the Department for International Trade recorded a total of 56 foreign direct investments into the UK from the Republic of Ireland with the creation of 2,914 new and 751 safeguarded jobs.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the UK is projected to become a net exporter of electricity by 2025.
Answered by Claire Perry
Projected figures show that we will not be a net exporter of electricity by 2025.
Projections for the power sector up to 2035 are published in the BEIS Energy and Emissions Projections 2017, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/updated-energy-and-emissions-projections-2017. Beyond 2020, the reference scenario includes assumptions that go beyond current Government policy and should be treated as illustrative.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage investment in The Gambia.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Minister for the Commonwealth and UN visited Gambia on 16 February, soon after their re-admittance to the Commonwealth. He met the Gambian Trade Minister during his visit to Gambia and also held discussions on agriculture and tourism, in particular on how Gambia could increase the number of British tourists visiting.
I congratulate the Government of Gambia and look forward to their participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April. This will be an opportunity for them to commit to good governance and signal to UK companies their commitment to creating a business environment that encourages investment.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the government will publish any evidence it has received over the last three years that supports the continuing ban on the oral nicotine product snus.
Answered by Steve Brine
The oral nicotine product snus was originally banned under Directive 92/41/EEC. This ban was reaffirmed in 2001 and most recently in the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU, implemented in the United Kingdom by the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016. The Department has received a number of representations concerning snus over recent years. The makers of snus, Swedish Match, have challenged the legality of the ban on snus and this matter is currently before the European Court of Justice; as such, the strength of the evidence for or against the ban is a matter for the Court and the UK awaits the outcome of that case.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the contribution to the economy of UK-based energy generation; and what recent estimate he has made of the number of jobs supported in the UK by that industry.
Answered by Claire Perry
As set out in table 1, the energy sector directly contributed 2.3% of GDP, or £40.2 billion, to the UK economy in 2016 and directly employed 178,000 people. Further jobs are supported indirectly, for example, an estimated 152,000 were employed in support of UK oil and gas extraction, while the ONS separately estimate that the low carbon electricity sector employed 40,500 in the supply chain.
Table 1: Contribution to GDP and direct employment of the UK energy sector in 2016
| Contribution to GDP | Employment |
Coal extraction | 0.002% | 1,936 |
Oil and gas extraction | 0.78% | 32,192 |
Refining | 0.08% | 3,887 |
Electricity | 1.03% | 87,277 |
Gas | 0.37% | 47,723 |
Nuclear fuel processing | 0.07% | 4,985 |
Total | 2.33% | 178,000 |
Source: Tables 1 and 2 of https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/631147/UK_Energy_in_Brief_2017_dataset.xls
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what information his Department holds on average policy costs per MWh in (a) the UK, (b) France, (c) Ireland, (d) Norway, (e) Germany and (f) the Netherlands.
Answered by Claire Perry
Eurostat collate data on the average gas and electricity prices paid by different sized domestic and non-domestic customers in Europe. [1] Table 1 below sets out the amount paid towards “environmental taxes and levies, and VAT” on the gas and electricity prices paid by medium-sized domestic customers. Data excluding VAT is not published.
Table 1: Environmental taxes and levies, and VAT on gas and electricity prices paid by medium-sized domestic customers, January – June 2017 (£/MWh)
| Gas | Electricity |
UK | 3 | 36 |
France | 14 | 52 |
Ireland | 10 | 40 |
Norway | Data unavailable | 41 |
Germany | 14 | 143 |
Netherlands | 35 | 36 |
Source: BEIS Quarterly Energy Prices, available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/international-energy-price-comparisons. Data for Norway converted to £/MWh from Eurostat data available online at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/energy/data/database.
The data above focuses on the costs of policies. However, actions taken in the UK to tackle emissions have helped deliver savings on energy bills for households as energy efficiency savings have more than offset the cost of financial support provided for developing low-carbon technologies – delivering a net bill saving of £14 on average in 2016.
[1] Available online at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/energy/data/database.