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 the number of households on pre-payment meters in each of the last three years, by parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government does not have this data at constituency level, however, data is compiled of households with pre-payment meters by region, which can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/quarterly-domestic-energy-price-stastics.
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 recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of (a) rising fuel costs and (b) introducing a commercial energy price cap on (i) small businesses and (ii) the hospitality industry.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government continues to engage with businesses to understand the impacts of high global energy prices.
The price cap for households was put in place because the Competition and Market’s Authority found that a loyalty penalty exists for the disengaged households. The CMA did not find evidence of this in the business sector.
The price cap prevents suppliers making excess profit, but it cannot reduce wholesale energy costs. The cap allows suppliers to recover the efficient costs of supplying its customers.
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 meetings he has had with representatives of Ofgem on the energy price cap since 1 April 2022.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It is Ofgem’s role, as the independent regulator, to set a fair level for the price cap. The Government is in regular contact with Ofgem and industry to discuss the impact of unprecedented global gas prices and will continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure consumers are protected.
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 meetings he has held with relevant stakeholders on fuel poverty since 1 April 2022.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ministers regularly meet with external stakeholders. Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published quarterly and can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.
The latest published data covers January to March 2022, further data will be published in due course.
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 meetings he has held with small business groups on energy prices since 1 April 2022.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ministers regularly meet with external stakeholders. Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published quarterly and can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.
The latest published data covers January to March 2022, further data will be published in due course.
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 his Department is taking to ensure that petrol wholesalers and/or retailers pass on the 5p reduction to fuel duty to consumers.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Drivers should be getting a fair deal for fuel across the UK. Healthy competition between forecourts is key to achieving this, with competition working to keep pressure on prices. The Government has asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to conduct an urgent review of the fuel market, as well as a longer-term market study under the Enterprise Act 2002, to explore whether the retail fuel market has adversely affected consumer interests. As part of this, the Government has asked for the CMA’s advice on the extent to which competition has resulted in the fuel duty cut being passed on to consumers and the reasons for local variations in the price of road fuel.
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 a timeline of when he plans to undertake the next statutory review of the Pubs Code and the performance of the Pubs Code Adjudicator.
Answered by Paul Scully
The second statutory review of the Pubs Code and the Pubs Code Adjudicator covers the period from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2022.
BEIS has already started the review by considering a range of publicly available evidence. On 26 May 2022, I published an invitation seeking stakeholders’ views and evidence which will also be considered as part of this review.
This can be accessed through GOV.uk at www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pubs-code-and-pubs-code-adjudicator-invitation-for-views-on-the-second-statutory-review-2019-to-2022 and stakeholders have until 17 August 2022 to respond.
A report on the findings of the review will be published as soon as practicable and laid before Parliament by the Secretary of State.
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 number of (a) businesses and (b) individuals qualified to implement retrofitting measures in homes and buildings across England in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In order to participate in government schemes, an installer business must be TrustMark registered, and PAS 2030:2019 or Microgeneration Certification Scheme certified. There are 1,690 installer businesses that meet those requirements, as of 28th April 2022. There are also 2,832 TrustMark registered Retrofit Coordinators and Retrofit Assessors.
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 number of (a) businesses and (b) individuals qualified to implement retrofitting measures in homes and buildings across England in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
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 her Department has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to require online retailers to state the country of origin in which the goods offered for sale were manufactured.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (CCRs) require traders to provide consumers with specified pre-purchase information including information about the main characteristics of goods, services or digital content but this does not necessarily include the country of origin. The Government have no plan to change this rule.
However, consumers are free to enquire from the seller as to the origin of products, and to base their decision of whether or not to purchase on the reply. Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs), traders are banned from giving consumers false information or using misleading statements or presentation about the geographical or commercial origin of products including in response to requests for information by consumers. The Regulations carry criminal penalties and are enforced by local trading standards officers.