Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Rolls Royce small modular reactor; and whether he has plans to use them for energy generation.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has awarded up to £210m to support development of the Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design. The Rolls-Royce SMR entered the Generic Design Assessment process in April becoming the first SMR to begin UK nuclear regulation.
As outlined in the British Energy Security Strategy, the Government intends to initiate a selection process in 2023 for the next nuclear projects, including SMRs.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the level of support provided by the energy bill relief scheme will be kept under review by his Department during the initial six month period of that scheme; and whether the Government plans to continue support (a) beyond the initial six month period and (b) until energy price volatility has decreased.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government announced its intention to introduce an Energy Bill Relief Scheme, for six months, from 1 October 2022. Alongside that announcement, the Government committed to carrying out a review of the operation of the scheme in order to inform decisions on future support after March 2023.
The review will focus on identifying the non-domestic customers most at risk and how the Government will continue assisting them with energy costs from April 2023.
The Government will publish finding of the review by January 2023.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether (a) district councils and (b) other local authorities will be eligible for the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
District councils and other local authorities on eligible contracts will be covered by the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This scheme will provide a price reduction to ensure all businesses and other non-domestic energy users are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions officials in his Department have had with their counterparts in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on providing the Digital Markets Unit with the relevant statutory footing it needs to give it powers to enforce the new pro-competition regime for digital markets.
Answered by Paul Scully
Officials in the Department are working closely with DCMS on this policy issue. The departments published a joint consultation on the policy design in August last year, will be publishing a joint response to that consultation in the coming weeks, and are working together to deliver the necessary legislation when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
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 conduct a review into the operation of the coal miners' pension scheme and the transfer of surpluses from the pension fund to HM Treasury.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The BEIS Select Committee carried out an inquiry into the Mineworkers Pension Scheme last year. The Government was unable to accept the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee’s report and continues to believe that the existing arrangements work well for all parties. Following the publication of the report, the former Minister of State for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change, the Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan, met the MPS Trustees on 21 June to discuss the report and options for the way forward. She asked the Trustees to consider whether they would be willing to include the Government Guarantee in any future discussions around surplus sharing and the Investment Reserve. The Government awaits their response.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans there are to manipulate the covid-19 vaccine to sensitise it to the omicron and other variants; and when he estimates such vaccines might become available.
Answered by George Freeman
Recent analysis supports our understanding that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which are currently being deployed in the UK, appear to work well against the current dominant variants of COVID-19 after a booster-dose. Continuing to administer these vaccines at scale remains essential in our path out of the pandemic.
The Government continues to assess our existing vaccine portfolio against current variants, working closely with vaccine manufacturers and the UK Health Security Agency to understand the efficacy of our current vaccine portfolio against new variants.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to acquire vaccines to provide protection from the most recent variants of covid-19; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
We are planning for all scenarios in the fight against COVID-19 and the Vaccine Taskforce is taking a number of steps to ensure the UK is prepared to respond to current and emerging COVID-19 variants as quickly as possible.
However, current data suggests that all deployed COVID-19 vaccines in the UK - AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna - offer protection against the prevalent virus variants currently circulating in the UK, and recent data indicates that the Pfizer vaccine remains effective against Beta variant.
We continue to assess the efficacy of the vaccines currently in our portfolio against new and future variants of the virus and continue to work closely with vaccine manufacturers to ensure that vaccines that have already received UK regulatory approval could be suitably updated, where possible and where needed, to remain effective against emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether advanced orders placed for new covid-19 vaccines such as the Janseen vaccine will be designed around the latest variants known to be in existence at the time of delivery.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The UK Government has secured early access to 397 million vaccines doses through supply agreements with six separate vaccine developers. This includes agreements with:
In addition, the Government has a reservation agreement with GlaxoSmithKline/Sanofi Pasteur for 60 million doses and a non-binding agreement with CureVac for 50 million doses.
The Government is working closely with vaccine manufacturers and Public Health England to understand the efficacy of our current vaccine portfolio against new variants and will continue to monitor the picture with variants as it develops.
The Government announced on 3 June 2021 that it has started commercial negotiations with AstraZeneca for future supplies of the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that have been adapted to tackle the Beta variant first identified in South Africa.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What steps his Department is taking to encourage prompt payment for goods and services by larger companies; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
We are completely focussed on fulfilling our manifesto commitment to clamp down on irresponsible payment practices, supporting small businesses who are impacted the most.
We will shortly consult on the merits of strengthening the Small Business Commissioner’s powers, which could support compliance by larger businesses and further improve payment culture.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect on the security of the electricity supply from the National Grid of the closure of Rugeley Power Station; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are clear that delivering energy security for our families and businesses is non-negotiable. We knew some old coal plants would likely be closing and we have already taken steps to protect supply for the coming winters, which took account of the possibility of further closures. Specifically, National Grid took into account the risk of coal plant closures in considering how much capacity to procure for next winter’s Contingency Balancing reserve.
Longer term, the Capacity Market will drive investment in new capacity as well as get the best out of our existing power stations. We will continue to work alongside National Grid and Ofgem to take whatever additional steps are necessary to protect our energy supply.