Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 provide energy support to mobile home park residents.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding will provide a £400 discount for households who will not be reached through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. This includes some park home residents. The Government will be publishing further details about eligibility shortly.
Those living in park homes will also receive support equivalent to the Energy Price Guarantee. The business in a direct commercial relationship with the energy supplier (for example, the park home site owner) is receiving support via the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) and is required to pass this support on to end users.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 his Department has taken to increase energy security.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK has a secure and diverse energy system. We are confident in our plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter, in light of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.
To strengthen this position further, we have put plans in place to secure supply this winter. This includes supporting coal plants to remain open, ensuring an additional 2.4GW of generating capacity to be used as a last resort over the coming months. We continue working closely with key international partners, to monitor and share information on energy supply, demand, and preparedness for the winter.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 impact of future trends in the growth of the global liquefied natural gas market on UK businesses over the next ten years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government expected a significant growth in global LNG supply in the coming years, particularly from 2025 onwards, as large amounts of new supply, particularly from the US and Qatar, become available to the global market. The United Kingdom has one of the largest LNG import infrastructures in Europe, so much of this is likely to be available to the UK.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the remit is of the Energy Supply Taskforce; by what criteria his Department will make an assessment of whether the Taskforce has been a success; and what the planned timetable is for the publication of the first report by the Taskforce.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Supply Taskforce was announced on the 8 September 2022, with the objective of investigating commercial alternatives for the United Kingdom’s energy security. Its remit covers natural gas and not the wider energy market. The Taskforce is engaging with a broad range of gas producers and shippers, and is advising Ministers accordingly. It would not be appropriate to publish a report on their work, which is highly commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 his Department has taken to help ensure that the UK's supply of natural gas will not be further affected by the war in Ukraine.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK has a secure and diverse energy system. The Government is confident in its plan to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter, in light of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.
The Government has taken steps to bolster supply and is working closely with Ofgem and National Grid to strengthen its position further. Earlier this year Equinor and Centrica signed an agreement to strengthen the UK's gas supply over the next 3 winters. This will add up to 1 billion cubic metres of gas per year to UK supply – enough to provide for the annual needs of two million homes.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the number of jobs that will be created by the Step Fusion Project in Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) programme is currently expected to create over 3000 jobs during the construction phase in the 2030s at the site in West Burton in Nottinghamshire, as well as support thousands of high-skilled jobs in the UK’s fusion supply chain. These estimates will be refined over the coming years as the programme progresses.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 it his policy to resume fracking as a way of extracting shale gas; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of such a resumption on (a) energy prices and (b) the extent to which the UK is self-sufficient in meeting its energy requirements.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government will end the pause on extracting shale gas.
It is right that all possible energy generation and production methods are kept on the table following Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Having domestic sources of gas makes us less dependent on foreign imports.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 prevent (a) vessels and (b) cargoes of Russian coking coal from docking in UK ports.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK does not currently have sanctions in place on Russian coal. We are continuing to explore options to reduce our energy imports from Russia in response to its aggressive actions in Ukraine.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport wrote to all UK ports on 28 Feb 2022 asking them not to provide access to any Russian flagged, registered, owned, controlled, chartered, or operated vessels.
Legislation has followed this and the government made Regulations (The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No.4) Regulations 2022) on 1 March 2022 which restrict any Russian flagged or registered ship, or any ship owned, operated, controlled or chartered by a person connected to Russia, arriving at a UK port. This was a vital measure to take in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the government has acted accordingly.
We will set out full details on our energy supply strategy in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to take steps to ban ships carrying Russian produced coking coal from UK ports; and what options are available to achieve that.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK does not currently have sanctions in place on Russian coal. We are continuing to explore options to reduce our energy imports from Russia in response to its aggressive actions in Ukraine.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport wrote to all UK ports on 28 Feb 2022 asking them not to provide access to any Russian flagged, registered, owned, controlled, chartered, or operated vessels.
Legislation has followed this and the government made Regulations (The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No.4) Regulations 2022) on 1 March 2022 which restrict any Russian flagged or registered ship, or any ship owned, operated, controlled or chartered by a person connected to Russia, arriving at a UK port. This was a vital measure to take in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the government has acted accordingly.
We will set out full details on our energy supply strategy in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's position is on the supply of Russian produced coking coal in the British steel supply chain in the context of the crisis in Ukraine.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Coal is widely available and UK steel producers can source these raw materials from around the world. We are in constant contact with UK steel companies and understand that those companies which were sourcing this material from Russia have already identified alternative sources. We are working with them to monitor any impact.
We also understand that as sanctions tighten disruption will increase but we need to rightly hold Russia to account and we know that UK Steel companies will be doing all they can to mitigate supply chain disruption.
The Department for International Trade has expanded its Export Support Service to act as a single point of enquiry for businesses and traders with questions relating to the situation in Ukraine and Russia.