Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support he is providing to businesses in the pharmaceutical sector to (a) expand their premises and (b) manufacture more products.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
In 2021, the Government published the Life Sciences Vision, which set out an ambition to create a globally competitive environment for Life Science manufacturing investments. To help meet these ambitions and incentivise globally mobile manufacturing investments in the UK, the Office for Life Sciences launched the £60 million Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) in March 2022. The LSIMF will provide capital grants for investment in the manufacture of human medicines (drug substance and drug product), medical diagnostics and medical technology products. The fund has received a large number of high-quality applications and we expect to announce the successful grant awards from spring 2023.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 make a decision on development consent for the East Anglia Green Energy Enablement project.
Answered by Graham Stuart
No planning application has yet been made, so I cannot answer that directly.
We are working flat out to minimise the impacts of network infrastructure on my Rt hon Friend’s constituents, and I pay tribute to her for championing their interests so assiduously.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 providing support for an offshore energy grid rather than the new overhead powerlines and pylons proposed as part of the East Anglia Green Energy Enablement project.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Private network operators, in this case National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET), are responsible for delivering network infrastructure necessary to meet consumer needs. This includes identifying preferred options for the infrastructure, considering a range of factors.
In the case of East Anglia Green, NGET recently published a letter to MPs outlining the total estimated lifetime costs of the onshore route, costing £1,136m, and the equivalent offshore option, costing £7,332m. Given the Secretary of State’s role in the consenting process for nationally significant infrastructure, no assessment has been made by the Department which would prejudice the outcome of the independent planning processes.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 make available financial support for businesses using heating oil.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is in discussions with electricity suppliers and delivery bodies and will set out the timings for payments as soon as possible.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 withdraw the planning consent given to the Rivenhall Incinerator in 2010.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has no plans to withdraw the planning consent given to the Rivenhall incinerator.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on the development of offshore electricity grids; and whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of introducing an offshore electricity grid and ring main to connect offshore wind turbines to the grid in (a) East Anglia and (b) London as an alternative to the overheard electricity cables and pylons proposed in the East Anglia Green Energy Enablement project.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Electricity System Operator’s Holistic Network Design provides the first step towards a strategic approach to offshore network planning. Projects too advanced to be included, due to pre-existing connection contracts, can voluntarily opt-in to coordinate. Two such ‘Pathfinders’ have been announced and five other projects have committed to exploring coordination in East Anglia.
Alternatives to East Anglia GREEN have been considered by National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) which showed an equivalent offshore network would have a lifetime cost of £7.8bn compared to £1.1bn. No final decision has been taken. NGET will launch its statutory consultation in early 2023.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the levels of gas supply in the UK between 25 February 2018 and 4 March 2018; what assessment he has made of the adequacy of those levels; and if he will review the gas storage resilience of the UK to meet severe weather demand.
Answered by Claire Perry
The 8 days between 25 February and 4 March 2018 saw temperatures across Europe fall well below their seasonal average, resulting in significant increases in gas demand. On 1st March, demand peaked at 418million cubic metres per day (mcm/d), which is about 40% higher than the demand normally expected at that time of year. Nonetheless, gas supplies into the UK were responsive, meeting demand throughout the week.
The Government published a strategic assessment of gas security of supply in October 2017 and will consider gas storage resilience, as part of its process of continual assessment of gas security of supply.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the level of gas storage capacity of the UK; and what estimate he has made of the level of gas reserve capacity currently available.
Answered by Claire Perry
National Grid publish figures on storage daily. This includes: opening stock, daily flows and available capacity. National Grid’s figures indicate that Great Britain, as of the 7th March 2018, has a maximum storage capacity of 13,188 GWh and 4,023 GWh of gas available in storage. These figures reflect the status of the market at a certain point in time and are subject to change depending on supply and demand.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the extent of (a) total gas storage capacity and (b) empty gas storage capacity in the UK.
Answered by Claire Perry
National Grid publish figures on storage daily. This includes: opening stock, daily flows and available capacity. National Grid’s figures indicate that Great Britain, as of the 7th March 2018, has a maximum storage capacity of 13,188 GWh and 9,165 GWh of available storage capacity. These figures reflect the status of the market at a certain point in time and are subject to change depending on supply and demand.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 estimate of the cost of daily standing charges on (a) electricity and (b) gas bills for (i) households and (ii) households that require a social tariff in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Claire Perry
The following table shows the daily average standing charge on standard electricity and gas bills for all domestic households from 2010 to 2017. We do not hold data on the standing charge of individual domestic tariffs. The figures are presented in 2017 real prices, calculated using Tables 2.2.4 and 2.3.4 from the Quarterly Energy Prices and adjusted to remove the effects of general inflation – data is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/annual-domestic-energy-price-statistics .
Year | Daily average standing charge on domestic standard electricity bills (pounds) | Daily average standing charge on domestic gas bills (pence) |
2010 | 0.14 | 0.29 |
2011 | 0.17 | 0.32 |
2012 | 0.18 | 0.33 |
2013 | 0.19 | 0.28 |
2014 | 0.20 | 0.26 |
2015 | 0.20 | 0.25 |
2016 | 0.19 | 0.24 |
2017 | 0.20 | 0.24 |