Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending Post Office target access criteria to include (a) distances by road and (b) services provided.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Government protects the post office network by setting minimum access criteria to ensure that 99% of the UK population lives within three miles of a post office. These criteria ensure that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens.
Post Office continue to ensure that at least the three core services of mails, cash and basic banking, and bill payments are provided within a reasonable distance for customers as defined by the Government-set Access Criteria. This ensures that these services remain easily accessible to all customers.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of when the Possession Claim Online service will be made available (a) for properties in Wales and (b) in the Welsh language.
Answered by Mike Freer
As a result of the Renting Homes Wales Act 2016 introduced by the Welsh Government, implemented in December 2022, changes to the Possession Claim Online (PCOL) service are required for users making a claim for possession of a property located in Wales.
Work is ongoing between HMCTS and Welsh Government to agree the scope and funding of these changes to ensure compliance with the legislation.
PCOL is currently available in the Welsh language and this will continue to be the case when the service is resumed for properties located in Wales.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to restore the Possession Claim Online service (a) for properties in Wales and (b) in the Welsh language.
Answered by Mike Freer
As a result of the Renting Homes Wales Act 2016 introduced by the Welsh Government, implemented in December 2022, changes to the Possession Claim Online (PCOL) service are required for users making a claim for possession of a property located in Wales.
Work is ongoing between HMCTS and Welsh Government to agree the scope and funding of these changes to ensure compliance with the legislation.
PCOL is currently available in the Welsh language and this will continue to be the case when the service is resumed for properties located in Wales.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many gigawatt hours of electricity the Maentwrog hydro-electric power station has generated in of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Veterans)
Generation figures for individual power stations are collected under commercial confidentiality agreements. Aggregate totals for electricity generated from hydro in Wales are published in an Energy Trends article available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-december-2023-special-feature-article-electricity-generation-and-supply-in-scotland-wales-northern-ireland-and-england-2018-to-2022
The Department does not collect power station revenue data.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much net revenue has the Maentwrog hydro-electric power station generated in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Veterans)
Generation figures for individual power stations are collected under commercial confidentiality agreements. Aggregate totals for electricity generated from hydro in Wales are published in an Energy Trends article available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-december-2023-special-feature-article-electricity-generation-and-supply-in-scotland-wales-northern-ireland-and-england-2018-to-2022
The Department does not collect power station revenue data.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue was generated by the Crown Estate in Wales by activity area in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Gareth Davies
The Crown Estate's revenue was £483.3 million for 2021-2022 and £738.7 million for 2022-2023 (as noted on page 116 of the 2022-2023 annual report).
Figures are not available for revenue specifically generated in Wales (or activity areas in Wales), as The Crown Estate runs a single set of accounts at an enterprise level and expenditure is incurred for the benefit of the whole portfolio.
Full annual accounts can be found in the financial statements section of the 2022-2023 annual report, with reference to the Wales review which highlights The Crown Estate’s work in Wales.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made a recent assessment of the impact of rising (a) electricity and (b) gas prices on places of worship.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Secretary of State has not made these specific assessments. However, the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) has provided all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users, including places of worship, with a baseline discount on high energy bills, since April 2023 and until 31 March 2024. The EBDS replaced the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which has successfully delivered support of £7.4 billion to cut energy costs for businesses.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of supporting places of worship with high electricity and gas costs.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Secretary of State has not made these specific assessments. However, the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) has provided all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users, including places of worship, with a baseline discount on high energy bills, since April 2023 and until 31 March 2024. The EBDS replaced the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which has successfully delivered support of £7.4 billion to cut energy costs for businesses.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing employers in (a) commercial laundries and (b) other sectors to use 25% of their apprenticeship levy funds for non-apprenticeship training.
Answered by Robert Halfon
I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 10 November 2023 to Question 614.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the granularity of data produced by the ONS for the purposes of policy decisions relating to support for businesses.
Answered by Gareth Davies
The government is committed to working closely with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to ensure continued improvements to data and statistics.
In 2016, Sir Charles Bean published an independent review of economic statistics. This made several recommendations, including to make data more granular and timely through greater use of large scale datasets. The government fully supported those recommendations and has since provided the ONS with £25m to implement them, which led to improvements such as use of VAT data in National Accounts estimates, and the publication of monthly GDP.
Subsequently, at Spending Review 2021, the government funded ONS to undertake a further ambitious programme of improvements to its suite of economic statistics. This includes introducing scanner data into price statistics and further upgrades to the granularity of business statistics through greater use of administrative data.