Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
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 Post Offices (a) have the capacity to achieve and (b) are achieving the timely processing of covid-19 vaccination letters.
Answered by Paul Scully
As the UK’s designated postal operator, Royal Mail is responsible for the last mile delivery of NHS vaccination letters. The Government is working closely with Royal Mail to ensure that these letters are prioritised. As a private company, Royal Mail is responsible for its day-to-day operations.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
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 the potential effectiveness of the June 2020 Committee on Climate Change recommendation that his Department works with the Departments for Work and Pensions and for Education and the Home Office to develop a strategy for a Net Zero workforce that integrates relevant skills into the UK's education framework and actively monitors the risks and opportunities arising from the transition; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential effect of implementing that recommendation on young people affected by unemployment during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
We are determined to seize the economic opportunities of the net zero transition, including supporting up to 2 million green jobs by 2030 across all regions of the UK. The UK has a strong base to build upon – there are already over 460,000 jobs in low carbon businesses and their supply chains across the country.
We are investing in the UK’s workforce to ensure that people have the right skills to deliver our transition to net zero. This summer, BEIS and DfE Ministers jointly hosted a roundtable with businesses and academics along with DfE to discuss skills and net zero, which is the start of a sustained work programme to take forward policy in this area.
We will formally respond to the Committee on Climate Change June 2020 Progress Report on Reducing UK emissions in October.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether businesses solely selling carpets are considered to be homeware retailers who may open their premises.
Answered by Paul Scully
The regulations have always identified homeware, building supplies and hardware stores as being among those businesses which may be regarded as legal exceptions to the requirement to close.
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 does not include a definition on what constitutes a homeware retailer. It is for each business to assess whether they are a business exempt from closing having considered the Regulations.
Where stores do remain open they are strongly advised to do so only where staff and customers can adhere to PHE guidelines on social distancing.