Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
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 amending and lowering the seniority levels required to access the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme to expand eligibility for that scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
Except in respect of a residential development facilities, a CLBILS facility must at all times during its life, rank on at least a pari passu basis with the most senior obligations (including secured and/or super-senior obligations, if any) of the Borrower. This includes from all collateral taken by any lender from the borrower unless the borrower is a financing vehicle, whereby this will include any collateral from any member of its Group.
There are certain carveouts from this requirement including collateral:
This approach ensures that taxpayer interests are suitably protected when providing government guarantees for facilities of up to £200 million to mid-cap and large businesses which tend to have more complex capital structures.
The CLBILS is designed to provide temporary assistance to businesses that are suffering disruption to their cashflow due to lost or deferred revenues during the Covid-19 outbreak. In this situation, existing lenders to a business will need to be willing to accept a temporary dilution to their own seniority reflecting this generous assistance from the Government.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
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 representatives of glass manufacturers on the effect of the renewables obligation and feed-in-tariff compensation on equity and competitiveness in the glass manufacturing market.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
My noble Friend Lord Prior of Brampton, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, met with representatives of the glass manufacturing sector on the 7th March. Officials have regular discussions with representatives of the glass manufacturers sector to discuss the renewables obligation and feed-in-tariff compensation including its effect on equity and competitiveness.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
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 effect on competitive advantage for companies in the energy-intensive industry sector of differences in eligibility thresholds for access to relief; and if he will meet representatives of that sector to discuss those differences in thresholds.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government has targeted its relief at the most electricity intensive industries operating in international markets, in line with the European Commission’s published Aid guidelines.
We recognise that in setting an eligibility threshold, there will be some companies that will not receive the relief while their direct competitors do. We have sought to address this by notifying the European Commission that we intend to provide relief to direct competitors who do not pass the eligibility threshold. We have had a number of discussions with the Commission on this proposal, although this has not been approved to date. We are keen to resolve how best to address the issues faced by direct competitors. We are therefore investigating options that may be available to us within the scope of EU State Aid guidelines.
BEIS officials are happy to meet with representatives to discuss this matter in further detail.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, (a) how much has been paid to officials of his Department as an additional incentive for working overtime on top of their normal overtime payments, (b) how much has been offered to any individual staff member for a one-off occurrence, (c) how many staff received such incentivised additional payments, (d) from which budgets such payments were made and (e) at which Ministerial or official level the business cases or payment approval for such payments was made in (i) each of the last five years and (ii) 2016 to date.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has not paid officials an incentive for working overtime on top of their normal overtime payments over the last five years.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, (a) how much has been paid to officials of her Department as an additional incentive for working overtime on top of their normal overtime payments, (b) how much has been offered to any individual staff member for a one-off occurrence, (c) how many staff received such incentivised additional payments, (d) from which budgets such payments were made and (e) at which Ministerial or official level the business cases or payment approval for such payments was made in (i) each of the last five years and (ii) 2016 to date.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not pay an additional incentive for working overtime in addition to normal overtime payments.