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 mechanisms are in place to compensate (a) households and (b) businesses for the disconnection of gas due to a shortage of available gas supply on the network.
Answered by Claire Perry
Under the gas Quality of Service Guaranteed Standards, set by Ofgem, after the first 24 hours of a gas disruption, affected householders will be compensated for time without gas. A domestic customer will receive £30 for each 24-hour period without gas, which is paid automatically through their gas supplier. Small businesses will receive £50 for each 24-hour period without gas, which will also be paid automatically through their gas supplier.
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 powers to restrict above inflation increases in daily standing charges on (a) electricity and (b) gas bills.
Answered by Claire Perry
The setting of a standing charge is a commercial matter for individual energy supply companies. Typically standing charges recover the fixed costs to suppliers, such as accounting and billing, in addition to the unit rate charged for energy consumption. Suppliers are free to offer tariffs with a low standing charge or, even set the standing charge at zero to attract low energy users, with the fixed costs included in a higher unit rate which customers only pay when using energy.
The Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill will introduce an absolute temporary price cap on standard variable and default tariffs for domestic customers. The cap, set by Ofgem, will regulate the maximum amount that standard variable and default tariffs can charge, including the combined standing charge and unit rate.
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 the one-in-two-out approach to regulatory costs is still being applied by the Government.
Answered by Margot James
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 requires the Government to publish a target to monitor the economic impact on business of certain changes to regulation. The target will apply for the duration of this Parliament and must be set by June 2018.
The target will inform the approach taken by the Better Regulation Executive to regulatory reform in this Parliament, including any relevant performance indicators.
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 regulations the Better Regulation Executive has identified for (a) revocation and (b) amendment in order to reduce burdens on business.
Answered by Margot James
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 requires the Government to publish a target to monitor the economic impact on business of certain changes to regulation. The target will apply for the duration of this Parliament and must be set by June 2018.
The target will inform the approach taken by the Better Regulation Executive to regulatory reform in this Parliament, including any relevant performance indicators.
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 the performance indicators are for the Better Regulation Executive.
Answered by Margot James
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 requires the Government to publish a target to monitor the economic impact on business of certain changes to regulation. The target will apply for the duration of this Parliament and must be set by June 2018.
The target will inform the approach taken by the Better Regulation Executive to regulatory reform in this Parliament, including any relevant performance indicators.
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 effects of employment regulations on micro-businesses; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
Government assesses all significant new employment regulation on all types of businesses, including micro businesses, through undertaking impact assessments. The Government commissioned Matthew Taylor to conduct an independent review into modern working practices. The review was published in July 2017 and highlighted the strengths of the UK’s flexible labour market relative to other countries. However, the review also proposed new measures the Government should take to improve outcomes for all those participating in the labour market. The Government will respond shortly.
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, which EU (a) Directives, (b) Regulations and (c) other legislation affecting his Department he is planning to propose the (i) revocation and (ii) amendment of after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Margot James
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill will retain EU law as it applies in the UK on exit day.
We expect between 800 and 1000 statutory instruments will be required across Government to correct this retained EU law to ensure the statute book functions appropriately outside the EU. All Departments are engaged in this process.
Once we leave the EU, we will make our own laws. As we leave the EU, the Government’s EU exit legislative programme is designed to cater for the full range of negotiated and non-negotiated outcomes.
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 processes his Department has put in place to (a) monitor, (b) collate cost information on, (c) review and (d) respond to requests to amend or revoke regulations introduced by his Department.
Answered by Margot James
For the current Parliament, the Government is committed to maintaining a proportionate approach to regulation to enable business growth while maintaining public protections.
The Department both monitors and reviews the impact of regulation through the Business Impact Target (BIT) and statutory review clauses. In addition, policy teams regularly speak with stakeholders and monitor data and intelligence to understand the impact of regulation.
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act (SBEE) 2015 requires the Government to publish its progress against the BIT. This involves publishing an annual BIT report on the estimated impact of regulatory changes in that year. In order to produce this information, the Department is required to collect and collate information on costs or benefits to business of regulatory changes over the year. The BIT report for the 2015-17 Parliament will be published shortly.
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, which regulations affecting business his Department has withdrawn or amended in each year since 2010 to date; which regulations affecting business his Department plans to withdraw or amend in (i) 2018 and (ii) years beyond 2018; and what estimate he has made of the net cost to business to withdrawal or amendment of each withdrawn or amended regulation.
Answered by Margot James
The changes to regulations affecting business during the 2010-15 Parliament are recorded in Statements of New Regulation that were published every six months. These are available on https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/one-in-two-out-statement-of-new-regulation. For the 2015-17 Parliament, the Government will shortly publish its final report on the savings to business delivered during that Parliament. This will be published on www.gov.uk.
As we leave the EU, the Government is committed to maximising certainty for individuals and businesses, making the UK the best place in the world to do business. This will mean fostering a high quality, stable and predictable regulatory environment, whilst also actively taking opportunities to support innovative business models. It is not possible to give a definitive figure on which regulations will be withdrawn or amended in (i) 2018 and (ii) years beyond 2018. This is because the volume of legislation will depend on policy decisions to be taken.
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, how many small and medium-sized businesses in Witham constituency received support under each business support scheme operated by his Department since 2010.
Answered by Margot James
Small and medium-sized businesses in Witham can access support through GOV.UK and the Business Support Helpline. Government has also supported and invested in the creation of a network of 38 Growth Hubs (one in each Local Enterprise Partnership area), providing businesses across England with tailored advice and support. We, however, do not hold data at constituency level showing how many small and medium-sized businesses utilised this support.
The South East Business Hub acts as the first port of call for businesses in the Witham constituency. Since its launch in 2014, the South East Business Hub has engaged and supported 7853 businesses and has helped 527 individuals looking to start up a new business in the East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock areas.
As at end of June 2017, British Business Bank programmes have facilitated almost £18m to 119 businesses in the constituency of Witham*. This includes 36 Start-up Loans at a value of over £227,000.
Through our Industrial Strategy, we will continue to back small and medium-sized business to grow and create jobs by providing an environment in which they can thrive.
* This does not include the ENABLE Funding programme as we are unable to identify data at a constituency level.