Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
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 funding from all rounds of the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund has been allocated to projects in Scotland; and how much private investment has been committed to those projects.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund is a competitive research capital programme to support strategic research and development collaborations between universities, businesses and charities. It is managed by Research England, working with counterparts from devolved funding bodies, and only supports large scale infrastructure projects which are built on demonstrable research excellence, value for money, and can generate at least double in private co-investment.
Since 2012 over £900m of science and research capital has been committed from the Fund to 54 projects which have secured an initial commitment of over £2bn in private investment. No projects were awarded to universities in Scotland from the latest round. In the first 5 rounds, £58.98m was committed to 5 projects in Scotland which collectively secured over £121m of private co-investment. This represents 6.5% of total funding allocated and 5.5% of the initial private co-investment.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
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 the latest round of funding from the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund will be allocated to projects in Scotland; and how much private investment will be leveraged for those projects.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund is a competitive research capital programme to support strategic research and development collaborations between universities, businesses and charities. It is managed by Research England, working with counterparts from devolved funding bodies, and only supports large scale infrastructure projects which are built on demonstrable research excellence, value for money, and can generate at least double in private co-investment.
Since 2012 over £900m of science and research capital has been committed from the Fund to 54 projects which have secured an initial commitment of over £2bn in private investment. No projects were awarded to universities in Scotland from the latest round. In the first 5 rounds, £58.98m was committed to 5 projects in Scotland which collectively secured over £121m of private co-investment. This represents 6.5% of total funding allocated and 5.5% of the initial private co-investment.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support is available from the UK Government for devolved regions to regenerate former industrial sites.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government has devolved over £9 billion to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) in England between 2015 and 2021. LEPs are investing that money according to their individual priorities.
BEIS has supported businesses through the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme providing funding. For example BEIS allocated £500,000 to Kite Power Solutions in Glasgow to develop a high altitude wind power generating system that uses kites to capture wind energy, and up to £750,000 to redT Energy for their flow battery technology cost reduction programme in Livingston.
Through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), the Government has allocated £1.7bn to ISCF challenges over two waves of investment. Funding from the ISCF has supported technologies and future industries which benefit a number of devolved regions. For example £36 million was given to the ABC in Swansea to support the construction sector and £13 million was given to Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Scotland for the pharma industry
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
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 had discussions with the devolved Administrations on the development of solar energy in (a) Angus and (b) other parts of Scotland; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
Ministers and officials in the Department regularly discuss a range of issues with the devolved administrations. At official level, the Department has increased its engagement with the Scottish Government. In January, the BEIS Permanent Secretary jointly chaired a Senior Civil Service away day with his Scottish Government counterpart, where amongst other issues, energy was discussed.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
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 the Cabinet Office on his Department having a civil service presence in Scotland.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
BEIS already has a presence in Scotland. Through the core department and 7 of its partner organisations, BEIS has a presence of over 800 people, based primarily in Edinburgh (459), Glasgow (223) and Aberdeen (120), with smaller numbers in other locations.
Last November, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster wrote to all Secretaries of State setting out the importance of the Government's commitment to relocate both public bodies and Civil Service roles into the regions and nations of the United Kingdom. To support this, the Places for Growth Programme are increasing their engagement with departments in the run up to the Spending Review and are drawing on advice and support from colleagues across Whitehall, including the BEIS Industrial Strategy Team.
For information – further detail on locations of BEIS and its partner organisations
The table below sets out these organisations (correct as of August 2018):
Organisation | Location | Headcount |
BEIS – Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment & Decommissioning (OPRED) | Aberdeen | 89 |
OFGEM | Glasgow | 131 |
UK Research & Innovation | Multiple | Edinburgh – 354 Glasgow – 3 Perth – 1 Dumfries - 1 Total - 359 |
Met Office | Multiple | Aberdeen – 31 Edinburgh – 29 Nairn and Moray – 12 Shetland – 5 Dumfries and Galloway – 3 Total - 84 |
ACAS | Glasgow | 89 |
Insolvency Service | Edinburgh | 44 |
Companies House | Edinburgh | 32 |
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) | Multiple | Caithness and Sutherland - 3 Ross and Cromarty – 2 Total - 5 |
Grand Total |
| 833 |
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the industrial strategy supports (a) manufacturers of agricultural machinery, (b) textiles and (c) small-scale engineering.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Government’s Industrial Strategy supports manufacturing across many sectors in a number of ways through business support, skills and R&D.
Through Business Support:
Through developing Skills:
Through supporting R&D:
We are open to having discussions with all sectors of business and industry to discuss how we can support them and would welcome the engagement from manufacturers of agricultural machinery, textile industry and small-scale engineering firms.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Industrial Strategy takes account of the importance of traditional industries to local areas.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Industrial Strategy ensures every place, including areas where traditional industries are located, realises its full economic potential. We are working in partnership with local areas to agree a Local Industrial Strategy with every area of England by early 2020, with support for places in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that want one.
Local Industrial Strategies will provide distinctive and long-term visions of how specific places can maximise their contribution to UK productivity, building on existing local strengths and capitalising on the opportunities of the future.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of the introduction on an independent fuel price monitoring body.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Government believes that it is essential that consumers get a fair deal and that a competitive market is the best way to keep prices low.
The Office of Fair Trading last looked at fuel prices in 2013, and I expect its successor, the Competition and Markets Authority, to keep them under review.
The Department continues to monitor fuel prices and publishes weekly reports at www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/oil-and-petroleum-products-weekly-statistics. BEIS analysis is that changes in the price of crude oil are the main driver of changes in the national average retail prices of petrol and diesel and both rises and falls in crude oil price reach the pumps within 7 weeks. The Government does not believe that a monitoring body is necessary.