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Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution
Friday 20th January 2023

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

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 17 January 2023 to Question 119033 on Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution, how much his Department spent on purchasing goods and services with a value of less than £500 on a Government procurement card in 2021-22; and how many purchases with a value of less than £500 his Department made on a Government procurement card in 2021-22.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department only has the value by financial year, BEIS spent £213k in 2021/22 on purchasing goods and services with a value of less than £500 on a government procurement card. The total amount was made up of 3,473 transactions however one transaction may contain number of purchases. To identify individual purchase items can only be obtained disproportionally.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution
Friday 20th January 2023

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

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 his Department’s publication of spending over £500 with a Government procurement card in July 2022, for how many (a) individuals and (b) nights accommodation was purchased at the Grand Hotel Petersberg on 1 July 2022; and what the purpose was of the stay at that hotel.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, Rt Hon Greg Hands MP, attended the Petersberg Summer Dialogue at the Grand Hotel Petersberg in Koenigswinter, Germany, for two nights 1st – 3rd July.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Waste
Tuesday 17th January 2023

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

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 his Department’s Greening Government Commitments for 2021-25, how many tonnes of food waste were produced from his Departmental estate in financial year (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23 up to the end of December 2022.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

In line with the Greening Government Commitments (GGCs) the Department has committed to measure and report on food waste, for estates with over 50 FTE (full time equivalent staff) and/or over 500m2 floor area offering a food service

The requested information for 2021-2022 will be published in the GGCs Annual Report for 2021-2022, due later this year. The data for 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022 will be published in the Annual Report covering 2022-2023

GGCs annual reporting is delayed due to Covid-19 impacts, but the Government remains committed to reducing the environmental impact of its estate and operations

Established in 2010, the GGCs set out the actions that government will take to improve the environmental impact of the government estate and its operations. They demonstrate how the UK government is leading by example and working to improve the environmental performance of its own estate and operations, in line with the Defra (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) 25 Year Environment Plan commitments to improve the environment within a generation.

Since inception of the GGCs, the Government has halved its greenhouse gas emissions and waste, in addition to making many other efficiencies. Progress against the commitments is published in GGCs annual reports.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution
Tuesday 17th January 2023

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

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 spent on purchasing goods and services with a value of less than £500 on a Government procurement card in 2021; and how many purchases with a value of less than £500 his Department made on a Government procurement card in 2021.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department only has the value by financial year, BEIS spent £248k in 2020/21 on purchasing goods and services with a value of less than £500 on a government procurement card. The total amount was made up of 2,965 transactions however one transaction may contain number of purchases. To identify individual purchase items can only be obtained disproportionally.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution
Tuesday 17th January 2023

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

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 his Department’s publication of spending over £500 with a Government procurement card, for what taxi services was Addison Lee paid £3,700.57 on 5 March 2021; and for what reason those services were required by his Department.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The travel was provided for staff working early or late shifts on emergency response work during the pandemic. Taxis were provided for travel into the office due to the unusual hours involved and the Covid19 restrictions affecting public transport in place at the time.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Aviation
Wednesday 28th December 2022

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to his Department's publication of ministerial overseas travel data for July to September 2022, what the cost was of the plane tickets for the former Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth’s journeys to and from (a) New Mexico, USA from 20-26 August 2022 and (b) Bali, Indonesia from 27 August to 3 September 2022.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The cost of plane tickets for the former Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth’s journeys to and from (a) New Mexico, USA from 20-26 August 2022 and (b) Bali, Indonesia from 27 August to 3 September are shown in the table below.

(a)

(b)

Cost of Plane tickets

£5,618.56 (Fare paid + Tax)

£6,351.46 (Fare paid + Tax)


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Incentives
Tuesday 6th December 2022

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what was the total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to staff working for his Department as performance-related bonuses in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Park Retail Ltd supply non-cash award vouchers to the Department since September 2018. Non-cash spend prior to September 2018 is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Expenditure on non-cash vouchers awarded to BEIS staff was as shown in the table.

Financial year

Total spend (£)

(a) 2017-18

-

(b) 2018-19 (Apr to Sep)

202,240

(c) 2019-20

299,079

(d) 2020-21

326,135

(e) 2021-22

349,940


Written Question
Certification Quality Marks
Friday 18th November 2022

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

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 (a) staff activity, (b) external research and advice, (c) public consultation and (d) stakeholder engagement related to the replacement of the CE product marking system with the new UKCA product marking system since the start of the 2020-21 financial year.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department has spent around £2.6 million on the transition to the UKCA marking since the start of the 2020/21 financial year. The Government have prioritised extensive engagement with industry both in the UK and overseas and Conformity Assessment Bodies to understand the implementation challenges. This has enabled the Government to make transitioning to the UKCA marking as easy as possible for businesses, including providing them with more time to comply.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Redundancy Pay
Friday 11th November 2022

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what total amount of money has been paid out by his Department in severance payments for former (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers since 29 June 2022; how much of that money has subsequently been repaid to his Department as a result of individuals (A) rejecting the payment or (B) returning to new roles; and in how many cases where individuals were in post for (I) 0-3 months, (II) 3-6 months, (III) 6-12 months and (IV) more than 12 months has their full severance payment been retained as of 2 November 2022.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Provision of severance payments for Ministers is set out in legislation.

Details of the severance payments made to ministers when leaving office are published in departments’ annual reports and accounts.

Similarly, the provision of severance payments for special advisers is set out in the Model Contract, which is available on gov.uk, including provisions for repayment of severance if reappointed. The cost of severance payments made to special advisers across government is published annually by the Cabinet Office.


Written Question
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: EU Law
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

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 spent on (a) staff activity related to the review of retained EU law, (b) IT costs related to the maintenance of the retained EU law database and (c) staff activity related to the passage of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill in the period between 1 September 2022 to 27 October 2022; and how much funding his Department has allocated for these purposes for the rest of the 2022-23 financial year.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has spent approximately £600,000 on staff activity related to the review of the department's retained EU law (REUL) in the period 1 September to 27 October 2022.

The machinery of government change, moving the Brexit Opportunities Unit from Cabinet Office to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, is underway and resourcing requirements related to the passage of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill and maintenance of the REUL Dashboard will be confirmed in due course.