Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 enabling investors to realise returns while solar power plants, onshore and offshore wind farms and hydroelectric power plants are being built to ensure that projects go ahead.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The existing renewable support schemes are designed so that payment is based on generation, and ensures that renewable assets are attractive to investors. Over 42GW of new renewables have been constructed through the Contracts for Difference, Renewables Obligation and Feed in Tariffs Schemes (to 2018).
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 ensuring that new gas boilers are hydrogen-ready.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government considers that hydrogen technologies have the potential to make an important contribution to decarbonising heating.
The Department commissioned Frazer Nash to prepare the report ‘Appraisal of Domestic Hydrogen Appliances’, published in 2018, which discusses the feasibility and merits of hydrogen-ready appliances as well as the adaption of existing natural gas appliances and new designated hydrogen fuelled appliances.
The Department is also currently delivering the Hy4Heat innovation programme; an ongoing programme assessing the feasibility of hydrogen heating applications in buildings. This programme supports the design, development and testing of domestic hydrogen appliances, including investigating the potential for products, such as hydrogen-ready boilers, to facilitate conversion:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/appraisal-of-domestic-hydrogen-appliances.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 including (a) aviation and (b) shipping in the statutory regime for the Government's net zero carbon target.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government is clear on the need for action to tackle emissions from the whole economy – including emissions from international aviation and shipping. Emissions from domestic flights and shipping are already covered by our existing domestic legislation and our carbon budgets provide “headroom” for the inclusion of international aviation and shipping emissions. This will continue to be the case for a net zero target.
Emissions from international aviation and shipping are a global problem requiring a global solution. That is why we are working closely with the relevant international organisations, the International Maritime Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization, to ensure we and the rest of the world are taking ambitious action.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has plans to support local community (a) ownership and (b) control of onshore wind farms.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out the Government’s policy on onshore wind and explains that for new schemes to be acceptable they should be on a site allocated in a development plan and have community support.
The NPPF also sets out that in principle local planning authorities should support community-led initiatives for renewable and low carbon energy.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities on compulsory disability awareness training for all employers and employees.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
BEIS Ministers and Officials talk regularly with OGD colleagues and disability and employment is part of those discussions. BEIS Ministers sit on the Inter-Ministerial Group on Disability which is chaired by the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 Cabinet colleagues on bringing forward the 2040 deadline to end the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
BEIS Ministers and officials regularly engage with their counterparts in other departments on clean growth matters including ultra low and zero emission vehicle policy. We set out in our Road to Zero strategy published last year our mission to put the UK at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of zero emission vehicles, and for all new cars and vans to be effectively zero emission by 2040.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on legislating for net zero, we will build on the strong frameworks of the Clean Growth Strategy and Industrial Strategy to deliver on that target in all sectors of the economy, including transport. The Government is committed to supporting the transition to zero emission vehicles, which can cut carbon, reduce air pollution, and help us grow the economy as part of our Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps the Government has taken to promote carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government believes that carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) has the potential to play an important role in meeting the UK’s climate targets. CCUS can add value to the economy and help tackle hard to decarbonise sectors.
The Government published its CCUS Action Plan in November 2018, designed to progress CCUS in the UK, including enabling the UK’s first CCUS facility to be operational from the mid-2020s. The Government is investing over £50 million in CCUS innovation support between 2017 and March 2021.
CCUS is also likely to play an important role in achieving our Industrial Clusters Mission, creating the world’s first net-zero industrial cluster by 2040. This is supported by up to £170 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to support the deployment of low carbon technologies and enabling infrastructure in one or more clusters. In addition, through our Industrial Energy Transformation Fund we are investing £315 million to support businesses with high energy use to cut their bills and emissions through increased energy efficiency and transition to a low carbon future through the use of lower carbon energy and processes. This may support CCUS projects.
In March this year, the Government launched the CCUS Advisory Group. Backed by government and industry support, the Group will provide advice on the potential incentives and regulations needed for the development of a new UK market in CCUS.
The Government is also working with other governments to promote the development of CCUS internationally. We hosted, with the International Energy Agency, the Global CCUS Summit in Edinburgh last November which brought together world energy leaders from governments and industry to accelerate the global progress of CCUS and co-lead the CCUS initiatives under both Mission Innovation and the Clean Energy Ministerial.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 creating a more sustainable steel industry with a focus on recycling steel.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working with the sector, the unions and devolved administrations to support the UK steel industry to develop a long-term sustainable solution for the UK steel industry. The Department commissioned independent research to identify high value opportunities for UK steel, worth up to £3.8 billion a year by 2030.
In the 2018 Budget, my rt. hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an Industrial Energy Transformation Fund with investment of £315 million to help businesses with high energy use to cut their bills and transition UK industry to a low carbon future. Through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, we are also providing up to £66 million, subject to industry co-funding, to transform foundation industries which includes steel, to develop radical new technologies and establish innovation centres of excellence in these sectors.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 create more jobs in the renewable energy sector.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Clean Growth is at the heart of this Government’s modern Industrial Strategy. There are currently 400,000 jobs in the low carbon economy, with the ambition to have 2 million by 2030.
We’ve injected £2.5 billion into low-carbon innovation and earlier this year struck a deal with the offshore wind industry, which will see up to £40 billion worth of infrastructure investment in the UK, creating clean, green electricity, good jobs and sustained growth across the UK. Under the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, industry aims to more than triple the number of ‘green collar’ jobs in the sector to 27,000 by 2030, up from the current figure of 7,200.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 potential merits of increasing investment in pumped hydro storage facilities.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
We recognise that electricity storage technologies, including pumped hydro storage, provide an important source of flexibility to our energy system. We currently have around 3GW of storage capacity on our system, of which the vast majority is pumped hydro storage. The Electricity System Operator outlines that, by 2050, there could be 12-29 GW of total storage capacity on our system.
In our Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan, published in July 2017 (and updated in October 2018), Government and Ofgem set out a range of actions to remove barriers to electricity storage. Our work seeks to enable fair access to energy markets in order to create a best in class regulatory framework for the sector and includes several important reforms to our electricity market, including to the balancing mechanism, capacity market and balancing services, which serve to sharpen incentives to invest in storage.
We will continue to engage with storage developers, including those of pumped hydro projects, to understand how to facilitate these technologies whilst ensuring best value for consumers and fair competition between different flexibility technologies.