Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to Answer of 15 June 2018 to Question 151096 on Land Registry: Cybercrime, what the outcomes relating to the use of (a) blockchain and (b) artificial intelligence are of the HM Land Registry's Digital Street project.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The HM Land Registry’s research and development ‘Digital Street’ project is ongoing. The findings of the project are incorporated into HM Land Registry’s forward strategy on a continuing basis.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many breaches there have been under the UK’s implementation of the EU Timber Regulation for placing illegal timber products on the UK market in the last two years.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) uses a variety of tools to improve compliance with technical and environmental regulations including those governing trade in timber. A significant amount of this activity is focussed on working with businesses to improve their compliance systems. Where appropriate statutory notices and other formal actions are used and a summary of all those issued by OPSS is published on gov.uk every six months.
In the last two years, OPSS has taken two prosecutions and issued 26 notices of remedial action and 37 warning letters under the Timber and Timber Products (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2013.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of enforcement action by the Office for Product Safety and Standards related to illegally sourced timber in the last two years.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) uses a variety of tools to improve compliance with technical and environmental regulations including those governing trade in timber. A significant amount of this activity is focussed on working with businesses to improve their compliance systems. Where appropriate statutory notices and other formal actions are used and a summary of all those issued by OPSS is published on gov.uk every six months.
In the last two years, OPSS has taken two prosecutions and issued 26 notices of remedial action and 37 warning letters under the Timber and Timber Products (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2013.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much timber used for structural construction purposes in (a) England and (b) Great Britain in each year from 2010 was (i) imported and (ii) domestically grown.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Sales by UK manufacturers have seen particularly large increases in the last two years of the period. The Department does not hold information about domestically grown timber. The information is not available for England or Great Britain. The following table provides aggregate information for the value of sawn wood, densified wood, particle board, laminated wood and fibreboard (i) imported into the UK and (ii) sold by UK manufacturers.
£m, current prices | Imports into UK | UK Manufacturers Sales |
2010 | 939.3 | 646.8 |
2011 | 852.5 | 652.5 |
2012 | 835.7 | 719.4 |
2013 | 937.5 | 733.5 |
2014 | 1,097.7 | 769.2 |
2015 | 1,043.5 | 777.3 |
2016 | 1,249.7 | 861.4 |
2017 | 1,371.1 | 1,219.5 |
Sources:
UK Manufacturers Sales – Office for National Statistics UK Manufacturers' Sales by Product (PRODCOM)
Imports into UK – Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Monthly Statistics of Building Materials and Components
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with individual academics and academic bodies on the potential benefits of distributed ledger technology for public services.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
In the report ‘Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain’ (Jan 2016), Government Office for Science makes the case for how the technology has the potential to transform the delivery of public services. The report includes details of a range of academics consulted in its development.
Following publication of the report, and working alongside the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport, officials from BEIS, GO Science and from other Government departments have continued these wide ranging discussions. Officials have met with academics from a number of UK universities, including the Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency Research; the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies; the Department of Informatics at King's College London; and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
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 the UK Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors and Metrology at the University of Birmingham about preparing land and mapping data for future developments in quantum technology.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
BEIS has had no recent discussions with the UK Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors and Metrology about this issue. BEIS is providing £270 million for the UK National Quantum Technology programme – including support for this and three other research hubs. Quantum technologies is one of the areas highlighted in the Industrial Strategy where we plan to launch a Ministerial-led review.