Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of adopting British Summer Time permanently on road traffic accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government believes that the current daylight-saving arrangements represent the optimal use of the available daylight across the UK.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the number of job losses in the wedding industry sector in the event that additional fiscal support from his Department is not made available to that sector in response to the third national covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Paul Scully
We have provided an unprecedented package of financial support since March 2020 to businesses, including those in the weddings sector. We keep this regularly under review, through discussions with HM Treasury.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) wedding venues and (b) wedding suppliers are supported during the third covid-19 national lockdown.
Answered by Paul Scully
We have provided an unprecedented package of financial support since March 2020 to businesses, including those in the weddings sector. We keep this regularly under review, through discussions with HM Treasury.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether hair, beauty and wellness services in (a) salon and (b) mobile settings will be allowed to reopen in Tier 3 areas after the national lockdown ends on 2 December.
Answered by Paul Scully
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister addressed the nation on Monday 23 November setting out Government’s COVID-19 Winter Plan. The COVID-19 Winter Plan sets out that the current national restrictions will be lifted on 2 December. Close Contact Services can open in all tiers.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 effect of the extended closure of hair, beauty and wellness services beyond the end of the national lockdown on 2 December would have on (a) businesses and (b) jobs in that sector.
Answered by Paul Scully
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister addressed the nation on Monday 23 November setting out Government’s COVID-19 Winter Plan. The COVID-19 Winter Plan sets out that the current national restrictions will be lifted on 2 December. Close Contact Services can open in all tiers.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer to Question 113639, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the grant of (a) £194,420 to the City of London on the basis of 24,020 businesses listed resulting in approximately £8 per business to distribute and (b) £4,849,340 to Islington on the basis of 21,175 businesses listed resulting in approximately £229 per business to distribute with his Department's policy to achieve a fairly equal distribution of Additional Restrictions Grant.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Additional Restrictions Grant is a discretionary scheme and is one of many business support schemes put in place during local and national Covid-19 restrictions. Local authorities have the flexibility to provide grants of any size to businesses and/or to fund wider business support.
Whichever formula is used to calculate grant allocations will result in a range of results with some areas receiving more than others. The method used provides a fairly equal distribution overall.
Both the City of London and the City of Westminster also receive a Local Restrictions Support grant for businesses that are required to close (£4.8 million and £21.8 million respectively), as well as discretionary grant funding related to the period that they were in Local Coronavirus Alert Level High (‘Tier 2’) (£907,000 and £3.8 million respectively).
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of distributing the November 2020 local authority discretionary grant on the basis of per head of population (a) in urban centres where the ratio of businesses to residents is significantly higher than other areas and (b) more widely.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Additional Restrictions Grant is allocated at £20 per head of residential population in line with wider support to areas, subject to Local Covid Alert Level ‘Very High’ restrictions, including Contain Outbreak Management Funds.
Overall, there is a strong positive correlation between business count and population. As a result, we see a fairly equal distribution of Additional Restrictions Grant value per business under the proposed allocation method.
The Additional Restrictions Grant is one of several grant funds being made available to local authorities to support businesses that are either being asked to close or have had their trade affected as restrictions are put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives. All businesses required to close will receive grants of up to £3,000 per four-week period.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September 2020 to Question 87582 on Travel Agents: Coronavirus, what support his Department is providing to travel agents whose focus is on inbound travel from (a) the US and (b) other countries.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government recognises the travel sector has been particularly hard hit by COVID-19, and we know quarantine measures are having an impact on inbound travel, but the measures are necessary to mitigate the risk of imported cases.
Businesses in the travel sector whose focus is on inbound travel have access to the Government extensive support package previously mentioned, including the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, the business interruption loan schemes, VAT deferrals and cash grants of up to £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 merits of amending British Business Bank lending criteria to allow businesses which have accumulated losses greater than half of their share capital access to loans under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) lending criteria relating to accumulated losses are driven by State Aid rules. The Government continues to hold a regular dialogue with the British Business Bank and CBILS lenders to monitor its implementation.
We continue to receive feedback on all our support for businesses and will seek to identify any areas for improvement.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he is taking steps to maximise human wellbeing and minimise environmental harms under a sustainable programme of economic recovery from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has undertaken an intensive programme of engagement to inform the Government's approach to economic recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak. One of the five key themes guiding this process is that of creating a 'green recovery'. In his speech of June 30, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister made clear that in recovering from COVID-19, we must build back greener. The UK has shown that growing our economy and cutting emissions can be achieved at the same time. Last week, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a package of over £3 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, which will support up to 140,000 green jobs. This includes £50m to demonstrate innovative approaches to retrofitting social housing at scale, to start the decarbonisation of social housing over 20/21; a £2 billion ‘Green Homes Grant’ to help people improve the efficiency of their homes accelerating progress towards net zero, while supporting jobs and reducing energy bills; and, £1 billion investment over the next year in a new Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to upgrade public sector buildings, including schools and hospitals, making them fit to help meet net zero with energy efficiency and low carbon heat measures. This comes as part of our commitment to ensuring that the UK's economic recovery is sustainable, placing human well-being centre stage by promoting a safe, clean and healthy environment for citizens to live and work in.