Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential contribution of domestic steel production to the transition to net zero.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Steel was responsible for 3% of UK emissions in 2022, 16% of UK manufacturing emissions. The majority of these emissions were due to the production of steel via the Blast Furnace route at Port Talbot and Scunthorpe. Currently the only commercially viable decarbonisation option is Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs), which can also contribute to meeting the demand for steel required for the Net Zero transition.
UK Government and Tata Steel have agreed a transformation deal to decarbonisation Port Talbot reducing carbon emissions from the site by 85%, and UK emissions by 1.5%.
We are also open to supporting innovative technologies like hydrogen-based Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) and Carbon Capture and Storage and continue to assess their feasibility.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she is taking steps to ensure that the National Minimum Wage applies to all staff on vessels working from UK ports in the supply chains of offshore wind farms in the UK Exclusive Economic Zone.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation applies to those who work or ordinarily work in the UK, as well as to some workers on UK-registered ships. We have a proud record of extending the NMW to seafarers.
In October 2020, legislation came into force to extend the minimum wage to all seafarers on domestic voyages in the UK territorial sea or UK section of the continental shelf.