Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 has taken to encourage members of the Commonwealth to share the same goals in tackling anthropogenic climate change and global warming.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Climate change has long been of concern to the Commonwealth and the majority of member states continue to advocate for ambitious action on climate change today. Small and vulnerable states – which account for almost 60% of the Commonwealth – face an existential threat from climate change and associated natural disasters.
This concern has been reflected in Commonwealth statements as early as the Langkawi Declaration on the Environment in 1989. Under UK chairmanship at the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, leaders reaffirmed their commitments under the Paris Agreement. We would expect the Commonwealth to play a major role in ensuring that a UK-hosted COP26 would be a success.
The Government is now using its diplomatic network to support mitigation and adaptation across the Commonwealth. For example:
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 took to raise concerns on USA withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement during President Trump's recent visit.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
While my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State did not meet with President Trump during the US state visit, the Secretary of State has stressed in discussions with US counterparts that the UK would prefer the US to remain in the Paris Agreement. During the visit, the Prime Minister raised the issue of climate change with President Trump directly and underlined the UK’s support for the Paris Agreement.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to ensure the transparency of all publicly funded medical research.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Department is committed to transparency in publicly funded research, including medical research. This is primarily delivered through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), as a BEIS partner organisation.
UKRI and its Councils have a long-term commitment to make the research process and findings as open, understandable and reproducible as possible, whilst respecting ethical considerations and necessary exceptions. All UKRI research awards are published on Gateway to Research, along with information on outputs and research papers, and papers relating to medical research are accessible to all via the open access repository EuropePMC. UKRI is also currently progressing the commitment to transparent research in all disciplines through the UKRI Open Access Review, which aims to increase access to publicly funded research.
Within UKRI, the Medical Research Council (MRC) uses additional funding conditions for clinical trials and intervention studies which require the registration of all clinical trials and that all results (positive and negative) are publicly available in a timely way, usually within 12 months.
Looking wider, UKRI is also working with Universities UK and other stakeholders to revise and strengthen the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, including attention to transparency and open communication of research methods, analysis, and the sharing of negative or null results.
The transparency of research funded by other government departments, and their bodies, is not covered in this response.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 trends in the level of fuel prices in different areas of the country.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Government does not collect official statistics on regional fuel prices.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to (a) understand and (b) tackle the issues that (i) carers and (ii) parents face in (A) retaining, (B) entering and (C) progressing in work.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
(i) Carers
The Government is committed to supporting carers to provide care as they would wish, and to do so in a way that takes account of their own health and wellbeing, access to education, employment and life chances.
Our Call for Evidence on carers in 2016 highlighted the practical challenges of balancing work and caring responsibilities. In June 2018 we published an action plan setting out a cross-government programme of targeted work to support carers over the next two years. That includes action to support employers to improve working practices and flexible working and to help carers to stay in work and return to work, as well as improving advice on financial support.
(ii) Parents
The Government has taken numerous actions to help people balance work and family. We have introduced 30 hours of free childcare for working parents of 3- and 4-year olds and we are giving working parents more help with the costs of childcare. Under the Coalition Government we also extended the right to request flexible working to all employees and introduced shared parental leave and pay: evaluation of both changes is ongoing.
At Spring Budget 2017, the Government committed £5m to supporting parents and careers back into work following a career break for caring. The Government has commissioned research to identify the barriers to both carers and parents in returning to work following a break for caring. We are seeking to tackle those through encouraging employers to set up supportive, flexible returner opportunities.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has been made of the effect of proposed changes to stage lighting under the EU energy efficiency regulations on (a) the UK arts industry and (b) other sectors such as schools.
Answered by Claire Perry
Since BEIS officials raised this issue with the Commission we have seen a new draft of the regulation which now includes a technical exemption for stage lighting. Prior to voting at the Regulatory Committee, due to take place at the end of the year, we will carry out a cost benefit analysis for the UK, and will continue to consult on the draft regulation and listen to any concerns raised by interested parties.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of whether markets have been found to act against consumer interests.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
We will issue a Consumer Green Paper in due course that will tackle areas where markets are not working for consumers.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 ensure that businesses make terms and conditions of online purchases clearer.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Government is currently exploring how best to encourage businesses to apply terms and conditions which are jargon free and can be more easily engaged with by consumers. This includes the use of model terms and conditions.