Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 impact of the war in Ukraine on research collaboration with Russian institutions.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government has announced that it will not support any new publicly funded research collaborations with Russia. Existing research projects with Russian involvement are paused. I have commissioned an assessment, on top of the existing and strong due diligence processes of UK public research funders, to isolate and freeze activities which benefit the Russian regime.
The Government is also funding a £3 million package of support for Ukrainian researchers at risk.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 contribution of off-shore wind to the security of the UK’s energy supply.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Offshore wind will play a key role in helping the UK decarbonise its power system by 2035, achieving net zero and providing secure, domestically generated energy. The UK currently has 11GW installed, generating enough electricity to power every home in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland twice over, with a further 8.5GW in construction. The Government has an ambitious target of 40GW by 2030 including 1GW of floating wind. The Government also anticipates further rapid expansion of both fixed and floating offshore wind through the 2030s and beyond. The Government will publish a British Energy Security Strategy shortly, which will set out how the UK will become more self-sufficient and reduce reliance on imported oil and gas.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 impact of sanctions on Russia on Government plans to phase out use of hydrocarbons imported from Russia in the UK’s energy supply.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
On 8th March, the Government announced a plan to phase out the import of Russian oil products by the end of the year. Phasing this out by the end of the year gives enough time to adjust supply chains. More than two thirds of all road fuel comes from domestic production here in the UK and Russia produces just a fraction of the oil imported into the UK.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 effect of trends in the level of investment in renewables on reducing household energy bills.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has seen the cost of renewable technologies reduce, most notably offshore wind. As more renewable energy is added to the system, household electricity bills will be less affected by fluctuations in volatile global gas prices.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 reduce reliance on Russian oil and gas.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK is a significant producer of both crude oil and petroleum products.
Unlike other countries in Europe, the UK is not dependent on Russian gas supply. The UK is able to meet the vast majority of supply through domestic production and reliable imports from Norway. Less than 4% of British gas consumption comes from Russia.
Energy security is an absolute priority for this Government. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy regularly discusses this with G7 and EU partners.
The current volatility in global oil and gas prices only underscores the importance of building strong, home-grown renewables sectors and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, including Russian hydrocarbons.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 contribution of North Sea oil and gas to energy security.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to the UK offshore oil and gas sector, which continues to keep people warm, fuel their cars and strengthen the country’s energy security.
UK-produced gas met nearly half of the UK’s domestic gas consumption in 2020. The North Sea Transition Deal recognises the important role that gas will play as the UK economy transitions from one based on fossil fuels towards one based on clean energy.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 assist homeowners in (a) grade two listed and (b) other protected properties to make upgrades to their homes to be more energy efficient.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
There are a number of Government schemes to support low-income households improve the energy efficiency of their homes, including the £787 million Local Authority Delivery Scheme and the £1.1 billion Home Upgrade Grant.
Growing the market for Green Finance is a priority for Government to help support homeowners not eligible for grants with the upfront costs of improvement. The £1.8m Green Home Finance Innovation Fund, which will be completed by March 2022, is a key early step in supporting the lending community to design, develop and pilot green mortgage products for homeowners.
A follow-up £10 million Green Home Finance Accelerator programme will launch this summer with the aim of supporting lenders to develop a wider range of green lending products for homeowners. This could include products for owners of harder to treat properties, including historic buildings.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether feed-in-tariff payments for solar panels will increase in alignment with the increase in energy prices.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Support under the Feed in Tariff scheme is not related to the retail price of electricity. The methodology used to set the tariffs considers the technology costs and electricity generation expectations rather than the retail price of electricity. The scheme rewards generation, provides a guaranteed price and market for exports as well as savings on imports.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 support the UK’s manufacturing sector.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The UK is one of the largest manufacturing nations, ranked 9th globally by output, and manufacturing contributed £173 billion of GVA to the UK economy in 2020. The sector plays a vital role in the UK economy through innovating (accounting for 61% of all business expenditure for UK research and development), exports (46% of total UK exports) and job creation (supporting 2.6 million jobs).
As such, the Government recognises the importance of UK manufacturing and is committed to its continued development as a strong, vibrant and diverse sector. Although decisions about investments and job creation are ultimately a matter for individual private enterprise, the Government has provided funding for strategically important manufacturing subsectors: leveraging billions across the renewables supply chain; backing Britain’s automotive sector through new Gigafactories; and onshoring new offshore wind manufacturing to the UK.
Furthermore, we continue to focus on improving the long-term competitiveness and productivity of manufacturing by investing in research & development, skills and support for digital technology through initiatives such as Made Smarter, Help to Grow and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.
In addition, the Government is encouraging companies to invest in productivity-enhancing plant and machinery. Manufacturing businesses can benefit from the super-deduction, which allows companies to claim 130% capital allowances on qualifying plant and machinery investments, as well as the extension to the Annual Investment Allowance to 31 March 2023 at its higher level of £1 million.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 support the growth of the hydrogen sector in the UK.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government detailed the key steps needed to deliver the ambition for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 in its Hydrogen Strategy, published in August 2021.
The Hydrogen Strategy set out almost £1 billion of government funding for hydrogen and other low carbon technologies, including a £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund. The Government has since announced the Industrial Decarbonisation and Hydrogen Revenue Support scheme to provide £100million funding for up to 250MW of initial electrolytic hydrogen projects allocated in 2023, with a further allocation round in 2024 and plans to announce a funding envelope for up to 1GW of CCUS-enabled hydrogen in 2022.