Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to publish his proposals on a state aid regime to be implemented after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Paul Scully
On 9th September 2020, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State made a Written Ministerial Statement on the future plans for subsidy control. This can be found here.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans she has to amend the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 to enable more than 0.1 per cent hydrogen in the gas network.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of replacing the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 with the industry standard developed by the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Written Statement of 26 March 2019, HCWS1449, whether the interim findings of the Adrian Smith Review on the design of UK funding schemes for international collaboration, innovation and curiosity-driven blue-skies research will be published before Parliament rises on 25 July 2019.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Sir Adrian’s interim findings will be presented to BEIS ministers in the Summer of 2019. We do not anticipate that this will be before Parliament rises.
The Review will be published by BEIS in due course.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the European Commission on whether funding for research partners in UK-led research consortia would be provided by (a) the UK or (b) the EU if the UK chooses to associate to the next EU Framework Programme as a third country.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The next EU Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, is still being negotiated through the EU Institutions and we are currently working with them to develop the Programme. There are a number of elements of this package yet to be agreed, including the provisions on third country association and the Programme budget. These elements need to be finalised before we can make an informed decision on future UK participation. We look forward to constructive discussions with the Commission in due course.
We have made clear that regardless of EU exit, we look forward to continuing our relationship in research and innovation. The Government is committed to continuing to back UK researchers and innovators by supporting measures to enable world-class collaborative research, including support for small businesses.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 facilitate cross-governmental co-operation on tackling climate change.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Tackling climate change is a shared endeavour between all Government departments. BEIS Ministers and officials regularly engage with their counterparts across government on clean growth matters including delivery of the Clean Growth Strategy and progress against our carbon budgets.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether EU nationals will be eligible for UKRI PhD studentships in the academic year 2020-21.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
EU nationals will remain eligible for UKRI studentships for courses beginning in academic year 2020/21.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 take steps to transpose EU Directive 2017/0355(COD) into domestic legislation.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston on 30th April 2019 to Question 910614.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 merits of using hydrogen storage to store surplus renewable energy for the electricity grid.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Government is undertaking a range of work to assess the potential use of hydrogen as a store of renewable energy.
The Offshore Wind Sector Deal, which was published in March 2019, sets out that the offshore wind sector will establish a Systems Management and Optimisation Task Group. This Group will publish a roadmap to identify opportunities for the offshore wind sector to collaborate on pioneering technologies for system integration, such as co-located storage and wind to hydrogen.
Alongside this, BEIS supports hydrogen storage innovation through the government’s £505 million Energy Innovation Programme. Within this Programme, BEIS is running a Storage at Scale competition which will provide up to £20 million to support demonstration projects using innovative energy storage technologies, including storing hydrogen produced by electricity. The scope of the Storage at Scale competition was informed by desk-based Energy Storage Feasibility Studies and the Energy Storage Cost Reduction projects, also funded by the Energy Innovation Programme.
BEIS is also supporting hydrogen storage through the £20m Hydrogen Supply Competition, this programme supports the development of large-scale production and storage of hydrogen which could take advantage of surplus renewable electricity.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what Government funding has been allocated to research and development into the use of hydrogen storage to store surplus renewable energy for the electricity grid.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Government is undertaking a range of work to assess the potential use of hydrogen as a store of renewable energy.
The Offshore Wind Sector Deal, which was published in March 2019, sets out that the offshore wind sector will establish a Systems Management and Optimisation Task Group. This Group will publish a roadmap to identify opportunities for the offshore wind sector to collaborate on pioneering technologies for system integration, such as co-located storage and wind to hydrogen.
Alongside this, BEIS supports hydrogen storage innovation through the government’s £505 million Energy Innovation Programme. Within this Programme, BEIS is running a Storage at Scale competition which will provide up to £20 million to support demonstration projects using innovative energy storage technologies, including storing hydrogen produced by electricity. The scope of the Storage at Scale competition was informed by desk-based Energy Storage Feasibility Studies and the Energy Storage Cost Reduction projects, also funded by the Energy Innovation Programme.
BEIS is also supporting hydrogen storage through the £20m Hydrogen Supply Competition, this programme supports the development of large-scale production and storage of hydrogen which could take advantage of surplus renewable electricity.