Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking through its cross-government data strategy to develop a secure, unified data-sharing framework with the Department for (a) Energy Security and Net Zero and (b) Work and Pensions to map and mitigate fuel poverty.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

The Digital Economy Act 2017 (‘DEA’) Part 5, Chapter 1 Public Service Delivery Powers enable information sharing between certain public authorities and gas and electricity suppliers. This information sharing power enables government departments (such as the DWP or DESNZ) to match household data against energy supplier records to deliver financial assistance and other targeted support.

Additionally, the Government’s forthcoming strategic data roadmap will set out the plan to transform how data is protected, shared and used across the public sector so it delivers more value for citizens, businesses, public services and the economy.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress his Department has made on helping to reduce business energy costs.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Every business in the country has paid the price of Britain’s dependence on foreign fossil fuel markets.

The government’s clean power mission will end the exposure of industry to the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices. And we are supporting businesses through the British Industry Supercharger and British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure that data held across HM Treasury, HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions is used effectively to reduce fuel poverty and improve the targeting of energy affordability support.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government recognises the pressure that rising energy prices place on households. We already use data from multiple sources including HMRC and DWP to identify households eligible for the Warm Home Discount, enabling most rebates to be paid automatically. However, many fuel poor households cannot currently be identified through existing data-matching arrangements.

The Government earlier this year launched a National Data Library 'kickstarter' project to explore whether securely connecting public sector data can make it easier to identify households in need, to ensure support reaches the people it’s designed for faster.

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