Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Corporate Governance Code’s comply or explain regime.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is responsible for the UK Corporate Governance Code. The FRC reviews the quality of reporting annually. The most recent review was published in November 2020 (Review of Corporate Governance Reporting) and assessed reporting of a sample of 100 companies in the FTSE350. This was followed by the publication in February 2021 of a report “Improving the quality of ‘comply or explain’ reporting” which encouraged companies to offer better transparency when departing from Code Provisions, and set out the elements to be included within a good quality explanation.
The FRC also works with independent organisations to research specific areas of reporting. This year two reports have been issued, one on remuneration reporting (May 2021) undertaken by the University of Portsmouth and the second an assessment of workforce engagement (June 2021) undertaken by Royal Holloway, University of London and the Involvement and Participation Association.
All these reports demonstrate areas of innovation, good practice and improved transparency by companies following the Code.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
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 International Energy Agency’s report entitled Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, published in May 2021, what steps his Department plans to take to tackle the (a) social and (b) economic effects on people and communities of achieving the UK’s climate change targets.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
People from all over the UK are already doing their bit on climate change, and, with the Together for our Planet campaign, we aim to celebrate this and inspire even more of our fellow citizens to join them. The Government is already supporting people to adapt to new lower carbon technologies with initiatives such as Go Ultra Low and the Simple Energy Advice service.
On economic effects, we are determined to seize the once-in-a-generation economic opportunities of the net zero transition by creating new business opportunities and supporting up to 2 million green jobs by 2030 across all regions of the UK. HM Treasury will publish in full its Net Zero Review this Spring, and has already published an interim report. The review will set out how the transition to a net zero economy will be funded, and where the costs will fall.
In order to ensure we have the skilled workforce to deliver net zero, we have launched the Green Jobs Taskforce, working in partnership with business, skills providers and unions, to help us develop plans for new long-term good quality, green jobs by 2030. The Government will make sure that our growing green economy is inclusive, benefitting people across the UK, supporting workers as industries transform and ensuring costs as well as the benefits are shared fairly, protecting consumers, workers and businesses.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
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 redirect biomass subsidies to solar and wind.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This Government has a long tradition of supporting clean electricity, and we have announced ambitious plans to support up to 12GW capacity of renewable electricity in the next allocation round of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, which would be double what was secured in the previous round.
The Government announced in March 2020 that onshore wind and solar projects will be able to bid for contracts in the next CfD allocation round, which is planned to open in December this year. The scheme has already awarded contracts to around 800MW of onshore wind and solar capacity combined.
We recently announced that coal-to-biomass conversions will be excluded from future CfD allocation rounds. This means there will be no new coal-to-biomass conversions under the scheme. We have no plans to remove support for biomass conversions prior to 2027 for generating stations that are already supported under the Renewables Obligation and CfD schemes.
In the Government’s response to the Climate Change Committee’s annual progress report to Parliament, we announced that we will publish a new Biomass Strategy in 2022. This strategy will review what amount of sustainable biomass could be available to the UK and how this resource could be best utilised across the economy to help eliminate the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2050.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential timescale for all UK internal flights to be able to be powered through (a) electric-battery, (b) hydrogen and (c) other such sustainable sources of energy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government has a wide range of programmes and challenges that can support research and technology on electric and hydrogen powered flight. These include the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme (£1.95 billion public funding commitment, 2013 to 2026); Future Flight Challenge (£125 million public funding); Faraday Challenge (£246 million); and Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge (£80 million).
Our ATI progamme is supporting electric and hydrogen power flight projects, and our publicly funded FlyZero initiative, announced on 20 July, will bring together experts from across the aviation and aerospace sector to tackle issues in designing and building a commercially successful zero-emission aircraft.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department is providing to (a) Rolls-Royce, (b) Bombardier and (c) other such companies located in the East Midlands; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The advanced manufacturing sector is benefiting from the Government’s £330 billion Covid-19 business support package, including those businesses based in the East Midlands.
This support includes the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which has seen 60,409 loans approved worth £13.68 billion; the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which has seen 516 approved loans totalling £3.5 billion; and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has helped 1.2 million employers across the UK to furlough 9.6 million jobs.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
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 will work with interested parties in resuming the E-Fan X demonstrator project; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We will make sure that the wider learning gathered during the E-FanX project, including important work with Cranfield University, is disseminated widely.
We continue to work with Rolls-Royce on the power generation system and ground testing, at Bristol, which was at the core of their element of the project. The learning at Rolls-Royce will be integrated into any future aircraft development requiring a hybrid-electric propulsion system. We are also working closely with Airbus and Rolls-Royce across a range of technologies including zero emissions aircraft.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department is allocating to the establishment of (a) electric and (b) hydrogen powered flight; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government has a wide range of programmes and challenges that can support research and technology on electric and hydrogen powered flight. These include the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme (£1.95 billion public funding commitment, 2013 to 2026); Future Flight Challenge (£125 million public funding); Faraday Challenge (£246 million); and Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge (£80 million).
Our ATI progamme is supporting electric and hydrogen power flight projects, and our publicly funded FlyZero initiative, announced on 20 July, will bring together experts from across the aviation and aerospace sector to tackle issues in designing and building a commercially successful zero-emission aircraft.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many of his Department's buildings have had their Display Energy Certificate rating improve in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was formed in 2016. In each year since then the Display Energy Certificate rating for the Department’s headquarters building (1 Victoria Street, London) has improved, with the exception of 2018-19. The annual ratings are shown in the table below:
Year | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 |
DEC rating | E – 117 | E – 114 | E – 115 | E – 113 |
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of works of art in his Department's buildings that depict (a) former slave owners and (b) slave trade merchants; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The artwork on display in the Department’s headquarters building at 1 Victoria Street, London, is supplied by the Government Art Collection. All works are Modern (post-1900) and contemporary pieces, and do not depict former slave owners or slave trade merchants.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many cyber-attacks have been conducted against his Department in each of the last five years; and how many of those attacks were successful.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Releasing details about cyber-attacks conducted against the Department may be detrimental to the Department’s security. On this basis, I am withholding the information requested as I deem that publication would not be in the public interest.