Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to encourage people who have solar panels on their properties to sell their energy back to the National Grid.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a Government scheme that enables small-scale generators with eligible technologies on their properties, including solar panels, to receive payment for any electricity exported to the grid.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of Britishvolt going into administration.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government does not comment on speculation or the commercial affairs of private companies.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many meetings he has held with representatives of Britishvolt over future investment of the proposed gigabit factory in Blythe in each of the last 6 months.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government is committed to securing investment into the automotive sector, which will play an important role in levelling up across the UK and driving down emissions to net zero by 2050. The Government has met frequently with Britishvolt since the start of September, including two meetings with the Secretary of State on 16 September and 21 October. Record of ministerial meetings will be published in accordance with the Government’s standard quarterly transparency publications.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what percentage of people in England were in fuel poverty in each of the last five years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department publishes annual statistics on the percentage of households in fuel poverty in England, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to introduce a revenue cap on renewable energy companies.
Answered by Graham Stuart
On 12th October 2022, the Government introduced a new Energy Prices Bill to ensure vital support gets to British consumers this winter. This includes new powers to help break the link between high global gas prices and the cost of low-carbon electricity. The powers allow for the establishment of a temporary Cost-Plus Revenue Limit to reduce the impact of unprecedented wholesale prices on consumers and the taxpayer. This limit will apply to low-carbon generation and allow generators to cover their costs and receive an appropriate revenue that reflects their operational output, investment commitment and risk profile.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 publish the full eligibility criteria for (a) businesses and (b) other non-domestic consumers to claim support through the Energy Bills Relief Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bills Relief Scheme will provide support to all businesses and other non-domestic energy users, including those in the voluntary and public sector who are on eligible energy supply contracts. Details on the eligibility criteria have been published at this link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers#eligibility.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 comparative effect of the standing charge for electricity on low income households compared to other households.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The standing charge remains capped under the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), which means that a household with typical energy use in Great Britain will pay, on average, around £2,500 a year on their energy bill up till April 2023, when the EPG will be reviewed.
The energy regulator, Ofgem, recently reviewed the components of the standing charge to see if they could be reduced. Ofgem concluded that while some low consuming users, might benefit from change, some higher consuming users, including vulnerable users, would pay more. Retaining the current methodology would protect users with greater energy needs, such as disabled users and electric heating users.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 number of company insolvencies that took place in London in the second quarter of the year, for each of the last five years.
Answered by Dean Russell
The data used for insolvency statistics is compiled from information at Companies House. The registered office address for a company may not be representative of its trading location, and often it is changed upon insolvency to the address of the appointed Insolvency Practitioner dealing with the case. Subject to these caveats, the table below sets out the data on estimated company insolvencies in the second quarter, 1st April to 30th June, in London in each year from 2017 to 2022.
Estimated number of company insolvencies in London in Q2 (April to June) 2017 to 2022
Source: Insolvency Service and Companies House
Year | Q2 (London) [1] | Q2 (England & Wales) |
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2017 | 768 | 3498 |
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2018 | 921 | 3970 |
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2019 | 1018 | 4239 |
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2020 | 608 | 2884 |
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2021 | 685 | 3145 |
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2022 | 1183 | 5501 |
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[1] Location is based on registered company address, which may not be representative of a company’s trading location. |
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Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 number of business insolvencies there have been in the food and beverage services industry in each region in each of the last five years.
Answered by Dean Russell
The data used for insolvency statistics is compiled from information at Companies House. The registered office address for a company may not be representative of its trading location, and often it is changed upon insolvency to the address of the appointed Insolvency Practitioner dealing with the case. Subject to these caveats, the table below sets out the data on estimated company insolvencies by year and region for companies in the food and beverage service activities division (SIC code 56) between 2017 and 2022. The 2022 figures are up to the 30th June 2022.
Table 1: Estimated company insolvencies in the food and beverage services division by region and year, 1st January 2017 to 30th June 2022, United Kingdom
Source: Insolvency Service
Region/ Country[1] | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022[2] | |
North East | 65 | 75 | 65 | 46 | 42 | 46 | |
North West | 216 | 304 | 364 | 270 | 223 | 212 | |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 236 | 241 | 276 | 209 | 271 | 153 | |
East Midlands | 135 | 157 | 180 | 82 | 85 | 72 | |
West Midlands | 136 | 192 | 196 | 166 | 160 | 102 | |
East of England | 98 | 126 | 122 | 103 | 141 | 128 | |
London | 391 | 509 | 574 | 410 | 369 | 250 | |
South East | 137 | 155 | 168 | 140 | 124 | 86 | |
South West | 89 | 120 | 134 | 80 | 86 | 46 | |
Northern Ireland | 32 | 39 | 59 | 23 | 8 | 13 | |
Scotland | 105 | 172 | 192 | 108 | 77 | 56 | |
Wales | 46 | 57 | 68 | 41 | 36 | 31 | |
Unknown | 9 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 2 | |
[1] Region/country is based on registered company address, which may not be representative of a company’s trading location. [2] 2022 number up to 30th June 2022 |
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Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the number of pubs and restaurants that have closed down since (a) January 2020 and (b) January 2022.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
ONS business deaths data[1] shows that 4,200 businesses in the beverage serving sector (which includes pubs) and 12,800 business in the restaurants and mobile food services sector ceased trading in 2020.[2] ONS business deaths statistics are not timely enough to provide estimates of the number of business closures since January 2022.
[1] ONS business demography statistics, UK.
[2] These industry breakdowns are the most granular available for the hospitality sector.