Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 the Energy Bill Relief Scheme for Post Offices after March 2023.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has committed to carrying out a review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme to inform decisions on future support after March 2023. Over the course of the review, the Government will be engaging widely to understand those who are most in need of further support. The Government cannot confirm which sectors will receive further support after 31st March 2023 until the review has concluded. The findings of the review will be published by the 31st December 2022.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what actions his department are taking to ensure social housing residents who use (a) biomass, and (b) solid fuel, as their source of heating or hot water are able to access the £100 off-grid energy financial support payment.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is aiming to make this process as simple as possible for customers. Households eligible for these payments in Great Britain will receive £100 as a credit on their electricity bill this winter. For Northern Ireland the Government is working with electricity suppliers to explore how the payment could be delivered via electricity bills under a similar delivery model to Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Households who are eligible for but who do not receive the Alternative Fuel Payment (AFP) because they do not have a relationship with an electricity supplier for example, will receive the £100 via the AFP Alternative Fund which will be provided by a designated body.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 20 September 2022 to Question 45900 on Natural Gas: Safety, if he will (a) make an estimate of the average costs of capping a gas main to enable the installation of carbon free energy systems, and (b) make an assessment of the potential impact of those costs on the ability of owners of properties connected to the gas mains to afford to install carbon free energy systems; and what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of allowing suppliers to require customers to meet those costs.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The cost of capping a gas main when a customer decides they do not want to continue to use gas for cooking or heating will depend upon the costs the supplier incurs to provide the service requested. It is a commercial matter for the supplier to decide whether to pass on those costs to the customer. The customer may ask for a breakdown of the costs and then compare what other suppliers charge for this service. If they find a cheaper supplier, they can switch supply and then request the service.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 potential merits of providing payments through the Energy Bills Support Scheme to people living in (a) bedsits within another dwelling and (b) houses of multiple occupancy that have a shared energy bill.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bills Support Scheme is delivering a £400 non-repayable government discount to British households with a domestic electricity meter over six months from October to March to help 29 million households with energy bills over the winter.
On 29 July, the Government announced funding for alternative support to help households which are ineligible for this scheme. The details for this will be announced later. The Energy Price Guarantee has also been recently introduced by the government. It is automatic and applies to all households and provides further help in dealing with the challenges of high energy bills over the next two years.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 is taking steps to ensure households who rely for heating and hot water on (a) district biomass, (b) domestic biomass and (c) solid fuel will receive the planned off-grid energy support during Winter 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Alternative Fuel Payment will provide a one-off payment to UK households that use alternative fuels for heating. This will come in addition to the £400 provided by the Energy Bills Support Scheme, and a further £800 of one-off support provided to eight million of the most vulnerable households to help with the cost of living.
The Government will continue to monitor the prices of alternative fuels and will consider further intervention if required to protect UK households from extraordinary fuel prices.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 his Department has had with ACAS about (a) improving access to mediation during employment disputes and (b) helping ensure employers engage with mediation services.
Answered by Dean Russell
The Department frequently engages with ACAS on all aspects of alternative dispute resolution service, including access to mediation and conciliation.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how rural (a) businesses and (b) households that use (i) kerosene and (ii) generators for (A) heating and (B) electricity will be able to access the financial support made available by his Department in winter 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is working at speed to deliver support for off-grid consumers and will publish details shortly.
Households not on standard gas or electricity contracts – such as some living in park homes or on heat networks - will receive support equivalent to both the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Equivalent support to the Energy Bills Relief Scheme will also be provided for non-domestic consumers who use heating oil or alternative fuels instead of gas. Further detail on this will be announced shortly.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 announcement on 21 September 2022 that the Government will take steps to identify the most vulnerable non-domestic customers and how it will continue to assist them with energy costs after March 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) including butchers on the list of the most vulnerable non-domestic customers and (b) providing a higher level of immediate interim energy cost support for small and medium sized businesses such as butchers which are high energy users and which the Government classed as essential retailers during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has committed to carrying out a review of the operation of the scheme in order to inform decisions on future support after March 2023.
The review will focus on identifying the most at risk non-domestic customers and how the Government will continue assisting them with energy costs.
It will consider how effective the scheme has been in giving support to at risk non-domestic customers and which groups of non-domestic customers (by sector, size or geography) remain particularly at risk to energy price rises, taking into account the latest price position and other cost pressures.
During the review, the Government will work closely with business, interested government departments and devolved administrations. The findings of the review will be published by January 2023.