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 settlement agreements were agreed between his Department and staff in each of the last five years; and how much was paid out in respect of such agreements.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department is interpreting the term “settlement agreement” to be an agreement that is reached and that is associated with a non-contractual payment, made in full settlement of a employee-related issue, that has arisen in the course of an employee’s employment with the Department.
The number of settlement agreements (cases) for each calendar year since the creation of the Department in July 2016 is as follows:
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 (a) laptops, (b) memory sticks and (c) external hard drives have been lost in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has lost laptops as follows:
Date | Number of Laptops Lost |
2016 (from Mid-July) | N/A |
2017 | N/A |
2018 | 15 |
2019 | 18 |
2020 (to end June) | 6 |
Information about the loss of memory sticks and external hard drives is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
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 data breaches his Department has reported to the Information Commissioner in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy was formed on 14 July 2016. Since that period, the Department has reported the following personal data breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which met the ICO threshold for notification purposes:
2016 = 0
2017 = 0
2018 = 3
2019 = 1.
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 redundant buildings have been converted into housing in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those conversions were made into affordable housing .
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has not disposed of any redundant buildings for conversion into housing since it was formed in July 2016.
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, if he will take steps to ensure that travel companies refund consumers in a more expedient manner; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued guidance to explain to consumers and business the circumstances when refunds are due as a consequence of the disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. The Government is clear that these refunds must be paid when asked for by the consumer.
The CMA has a programme of work to ensure refunds arising from the Covid-19 outbreak are paid. If the CMA finds evidence that companies are failing to comply with the law, the CMA will take appropriate enforcement action, which could include taking a firm to court if it does not address its concerns. The CMA has also set up a Covid-19 taskforce for consumers to register complaints, available through: https://www.coronavirus-business-complaint.service.gov.uk/.
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 much energy from renewable sources has been produced from his departmental buildings in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was formed in 2016 and so the following table shows the energy generated from solar PV by the Department at its headquarters building (1 Victoria Street, London) for each of the last four financial years and the current financial year to the end of June.
| 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
Electricity - Solar PV (kWh) | 1,377 | 1,894 | 2,106 | 2,406 | 975* |
*Data for 2020/21 is for April – June inclusive.
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 all of his departmental buildings are purchasing energy through a renewable energy tariff.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department purchases electricity through a renewable energy tariff for its London headquarters building (1 Victoria Street) and other London buildings containing departmental staff (151 Buckingham Palace Road, 10-18 Victoria Street, and Fleetbank House).
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 much carbon his Department’s activities have produced in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The table below shows how much carbon the Department’s activities have produced in each of the last four reporting years since the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was formed in 2016.
| 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 |
Emissions tCO2e | 2,529.24* | 3,231.08 | 2,607.31 | 2,465.37 |
*Emissions for 2016/17 are based on energy consumed at the Department’s headquarters building (1 Victoria Street, London) and do not include emissions from other activities.
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 much his Department has spent on energy conservation measures in his departmental buildings, in each of the last four years.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department is committed to reducing our carbon emissions and energy consumption wherever possible and in 2018 carried out an audit of its headquarters building (1 Victoria Street, London) to identify energy conservation measures.
The spend on energy conservation measures in 2019/20 was £1,817,037.48 which includes projects such as lighting upgrades to LEDs, installation of energy monitoring software, and replacement of building services plant.
Figures are not available for previous years as expenditure was captured against different headings.
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 effect of Intu going into administration on job security in the retail sector; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government recognises the impact that coronavirus is having on job security in the retail sector and we have put together a far-reaching package of support for businesses and for the economy.
We understand this will be a worrying time for Intu’s employees and their families and stand ready to support anyone affected in any way we can.
This is a commercial matter for the company and we hope the administrators will be able to secure as many jobs as possible.