Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to reply to the hon. Member for Weston-Super-Mare's letters of 18 November and 20 December 2022 on behalf of his constituent, Sara Littlewood, regarding Royal Mail.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I wrote to the hon. Member on 26 January regarding Royal Mail.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy when he plans to reply to the letters of 10 November and14 December 2022 from the hon. Member for Weston-Super-Mare on of behalf his constituent, Mr Martin Hodgson.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
My hon Friend, the Minister for Energy and Climate (Graham Stuart), wrote to my hon Friend on 13 January about the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
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 merits of reforming the (a) energy price cap, (b) wholesale energy markets and (c) electricity grid to deliver lower and stable energy costs.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
We are considering how our policies should evolve and will continue to be guided by our commitment to meeting carbon budgets, maintaining energy security, and ensuring cost effectiveness. We will also continue to adopt a system-wide approach in assessing the case for any changes.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Government will publish its official response to the Penrose Review that it commissioned into the UK’s competition and consumer regime, published in February 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
I would like to thank the Hon. Member for conducting his review and continued advocacy for reforming our competition and consumer policy. The Government consulted from July to October 2021 on a wide range of reforms to competition and consumer policy, and the consultations respond to proposals made by the Hon. Member in his report. The Government is now analysing the feedback received and will respond to the consultations in due course. We do not intend to issue a formal response to the Penrose review beyond our plans for response to consultation.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
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 publish the quantitative calculations and evidence supporting the statement in the Subsidy Control Bill's Impact Assessment, section 290, that lowering transparency thresholds for publication from £500,000 to either £175,000 or £0 would have a net additional benefit of 0.00001 per cent a year.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Bill’s Impact Assessment can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subsidy-control-bill-2021-bill-documents.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
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 total value of reported Government subsidies to businesses as at 14 September 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
According to the most recent available State Aid Scoreboard, the total reported subsidies between 2010 and 2019 in the United Kingdom was €80.1bn for non-agricultural subsidies. Data covering 2020 will be included in the next annual report of the State Aid Scoreboard.
Data for the period from 01 January 2021 is held on the UK’s publicly-accessible subsidy Transparency Database.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to (a) assess and (b) monitor the effectiveness of subsidies made by public authorities falling below the transparency thresholds proposed in the Subsidy Control Bill; and whether those subsidies will be required to be reported to his Department by public authorities.
Answered by Paul Scully
The new subsidy transparency rules will make the UK a world leader in subsidy transparency and will provide subsidy data for improving subsidy design across the UK.
Any financial support below £315,000 over three years does not require a public authority to check the subsidy against the principles, because it is exempt as Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA). This financial support does not need to be reported to the Government or uploaded to the transparency database. The Government does not intend to assess and monitor the effectiveness of financial support which is exempt from the subsidy control rules.
The subsidy transparency rules have been designed to balance the administrative burden of recording subsidies with the benefits of subsidy transparency for those subsidies most likely to distort competition. This is why the MFA threshold is set at £315,000 over three years.
Regardless of the transparency rules, public authorities have a responsibility to ensure that any public money they provide is spent appropriately. Nonetheless, the assessment of financial support which is exempt from the rules would reduce the effectiveness of the dataset generated by the subsidy control database. Any subsidy data analysis should focus on those subsidies subject to the rules of the regime.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
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 provide a breakdown of the main purposes of subsidies awarded by public bodies that were below the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) transparency threshold in each calendar year between 2015 and 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
Information on subsidies which were below the EU State aid transparency threshold was not required to be declared on the EU State Aid Transparency Public Search tool.
The information is also not held centrally by the Government and could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the total (a) number and (b) value of subsidies awarded by public bodies that were below the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) transparency threshold was in each calendar year between 2015 and 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
Information on subsidies which were below the EU State aid transparency threshold was not required to be declared on the EU State Aid Transparency Public Search tool.
The information is also not held centrally by the Government and could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
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 has made an estimate of the potential net benefit of smart meter roll-out in (a) cost savings for suppliers, (b) cost savings for consumers and (c) the transmission system; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Smart Meter Roll-out Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) published on 10 November estimates the costs and benefits for suppliers, consumers’ savings and energy networks – the document is available at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/smart-meter-roll-out-gb-cost-benefit-analysis.
The smart meter rollout is expected to deliver significant net benefits to Great Britain, estimated overall at £5.7 billion over the lifetime of the programme.