Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 take steps to include public sector swimming pools within the scope of the energy and trade intensive industries which will receive additional government support with energy bills through the Energy Relief Discount Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There are currently no plans to review the list of Energy and Trade Intensive Industries eligible for support under the Energy Bill Discount Scheme. The Government has taken a consistent approach to identifying the most energy and trade intensive sectors, with all sectors that meet agreed thresholds for energy and trade intensity eligible for Energy and Trade Intensive Industries support. These thresholds have been set at sectors falling above the 80th percentile for energy intensity and 60th percentile for trade intensity, plus any sectors eligible for the existing energy compensation and exemption schemes.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 take steps to prevent the customers of energy suppliers being moved to prepayment arrangements without being consulted.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The energy regulator Ofgem has rules in place that restrict the force-fitting of a prepayment meter on customers who are in debt, except as a last resort.
Suppliers must provide notice of seven days before installing a prepayment meter or changing a smart meter to prepay mode.
Ofgem further rules require energy suppliers to assess whether installing a prepayment meter, including the remote switching of a smart meter, is safe and reasonably practicable for the customer. This assessment should include identifying any vulnerability.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 a timetable for announcing successful bids in respect of the Second Cluster Sequencing development for the carbon capture, utilisation and storage sector; and if he will make it his policy to allow all credible bids to proceed.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government remains committed to supporting four CCUS clusters to deployment by 2030. Track-2 of the Cluster Sequencing Programme will add further clusters to fulfil this commitment and deliver an additional capture and storage capacity of at least 10Mtpa.
The Government will continue to engage with industry to develop a Track-2 process for future CCUS deployment, building on our experience of sequencing the Track-1 clusters. Details of this process will be brought forward in due course.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 take steps to ensure that park home residents receive the full benefit of the support available to households to help meet the rise in the cost of energy.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is aware that not all households have electricity provided through a domestic electricity supply contract, such as mobile home residents. The Government raised this in its technical consultation on the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Households without a domestic electricity supply contract are not eligible for the scheme and the Government is exploring options for other ways in which they might receive similar support. The responses to this consultation are being analysed and a response will be published later in the summer.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 plans to further develop the Green Homes Grant scheme.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme was designed to provide a short-term economic stimulus while tackling our contribution to climate change.
My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £320 million for the scheme in the next financial year, as part of funding to make homes and public buildings more energy efficient.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on the eligibility criteria for (a) racing stables and (b) riding schools & Livery stables to access the covid-19 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
Under the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) businesses in England that would have been in receipt of the Expanded Retail Discount (which covers retail, hospitality and leisure) on 11 March 2020, with a rateable value of less than £51,000, will be eligible for cash grants of up to £25,000 per property.
Private stables are included in the guidance as an example of ineligible hereditaments. However, this is not intended to rule out all stables. If a stable is a genuine commercial enterprise and meets all the other criteria such as being eligible for rates relief under the expanded retail discount scheme, then they can qualify for a grant. It would be up to local authorities to decide whether the stable in question was for personal/private or commercial use.
Guidance intended to support local authorities in administering this fund was first published on 24 March and can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/881040/business_support_grants-local_authorities_guidance.pdf.
Guidance for Local Authorities on the Expanded Retail Discount Scheme can be found here:
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 take steps to enable local authorities to extend the discretion to distribute surplus Business Grant funds to businesses that are (a) not covered by existing discretions and (b) are above rateable value thresholds.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has announced a package of support for business to help with their ongoing costs in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19. This includes £12.33 billion to local authorities in England to support businesses under the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund. As at 14 June, £10.36 billion has been paid out to over 844,000 business properties across the two schemes.
On 1 May, the Government announced a further £617 million available, in the form of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund, for local authorities to support small businesses that are not eligible for business rates or rates relief and are therefore not in scope of the existing grant schemes. Local authorities are responsible for defining precise eligibility for this scheme, and have discretion to pay grants to businesses based on local economic need – within the national guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding
Local authorities will need to manage their schemes effectively to stay within their Discretionary Grants Fund allocation.
As with other business support measures, Ministers continue to keep the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund under review, monitoring roll-out and level of demand to assess how to ensure businesses and local economies are best supported.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 to extend Statutory Adoption Pay to self-employed people.
Answered by Paul Scully
As part of the Spring Budget 2020, the Government committed to consider how to provide appropriate support to self-employed parents, including adopters, so that they can continue to run their businesses, as part of the Government’s wider review of Parental Pay and Leave.
Currently, adopters may be eligible for adoption allowance from their local authority to help them cope with the extra costs adoption brings about.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 to prohibit the sale of single use barbecues.
Answered by Paul Scully
All consumer products, including single use barbecues must be safe in normal or reasonably foreseeable use in line with the requirements of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.? There are no plans to ban their sale.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether local authorities have discretion to make grants to a business under the Small Business Grant Scheme if the business is not registered with the Valuation Office Agency; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has announced a package of support for businesses to help with their ongoing business costs in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19. This package of support includes the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF). Businesses with a property that on the 11 March 2020 were eligible for Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) Scheme or those businesses which on 11 March 2020 were eligible for relief under the Rural Rate Relief Scheme, will be eligible for the SBGF.
The SBGF, alongside the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund, have helped supported many thousands of small businesses.
In order to ensure that Local Authorities can help these businesses, on 1 May 2020 the Business Secretary announced that a further up to £617 million is being made available to Local Authorities in England to allow them to provide discretionary grants. This additional Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs but not liable for business rates or rates reliefs. It is our intention that the following businesses should be considered as a priority for these funds:
Local authorities may choose to make payments to other businesses based on local economic need and subject to those businesses meeting the specific eligibility criteria.