Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of homes and businesses (a) on and (b) off the gas grid in the UK which will need to replace or upgrade their heating system to work with a heat pump.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Earlier this year, the Department published a report on heat distribution systems in domestic buildings. This report suggests that up to 90 per cent of dwellings in the UK with an existing wet central heating system may need to replace or upgrade their heating system to meet peak winter heating demand with a low temperature heat pump, falling to 68 per cent when using a high temperature heat pump.
This research does not distinguish between homes on and off the gas grid, and does not consider non-domestic buildings. For non-domestic buildings, we intend to explore the suitability of existing heat distribution systems for low temperature operation as part of our forthcoming Non-Domestic Building Survey.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the average cost of fitting a new heating system to a typical UK property to make it compatible with a heat pump.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Earlier this year, the Department published a report on heat distribution systems. This report concluded that the typical cost of retrofitting an entire house with larger radiators for a low temperature heating system, like a low temperature heat pump, would be approximately £1,700 for a one- to two-bedroom house, £2,200 for a three-bedroom house and £2,900 for a five-bedroom house. However, not all homes will require a radiator retrofit to become suitable for a heat pump, meaning the costs would be lower. In addition, the use of high temperature heat pumps is likely to significantly reduce the need to alter existing heat distribution systems.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the number of properties that have sufficient space available for the installation of a water tank in addition to fitting a new heating system.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We do not currently hold data on how many homes have sufficient space available for the installation of a water tank in addition to fitting a new heating system. However, the English Housing Survey suggests the proportion of dwellings that have central heating and a separate hot water cylinder has decreased from half of the stock in 2008 to just over a third in 2018. This suggests a general attrition in the space provision for separate hot water cylinders.
As low carbon heating systems generally require a separate hot water tank, we are exploring this further through projects like the Government-funded Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project and working with industry to develop solutions to internal space constraints, such as providing innovation funding to support the commercialisation of technologies like thermal phase change batteries, which occupy a third of the space of a traditional hot water cylinder for the same hot water output.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the average number of gas boilers that were replaced in UK domestic properties in each of the last five years.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
According to the Hot Water Heating and Industry Council (HHIC), 1.67 million boilers were sold in 2019. HHIC have also recently announced that the 12-month rolling average sales figure for boilers had increased by 14% from April 2020 to April 2021, demonstrating a strong response to the impacts of Covid-19 last year.
The majority of boiler purchases are replacements, installed into existing dwellings, with the rest being installed within new build properties.
For previous years, data on annual boiler sales is available under licence from market intelligence sources.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the prevalence of collisions between cetaceans and vessels, referred to as ship strikes, in UK waters or involving UK ships in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We recently let a 10-year contract for the continuation of our widely respected UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme. This scheme investigates the causes of death of stranded cetaceans around the UK coast, improving our understanding of, and ability to tackle, key threats like ship strikes. Between 2016 and 2020, the CSIP team examined 663 cetaceans and found only 11 showed evidence of ship strikes. While ship strikes are a serious threat to cetaceans globally, there is low prevalence of incidents occurring within UK waters.
We work through the Conservation and Scientific Committees of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to understand and reduce the threat posed by ship strikes. The IWC is also collaborating with other relevant organisations at both regional and inter-governmental levels to share information and expertise. We recently contributed £20k to the IWC to support efforts to better understand and mitigate ship strikes.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department has spent preventing and tackling UK cetacean strandings in each year since 2015.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 2015, we have spent over £3.7 million on work to better understand and mitigate threats to cetaceans to help to reduce the likelihood of strandings taking place.
Over £1.4 million of which is funding for the Cetacean Stranding Investigation Programme, which aims to improve our understanding of, and ability to tackle, key threats to cetaceans. This programme coordinates the response to cetacean strandings in the UK and, where it has not been possible to return the animal to the sea, it provides an assessment to determine the cause of death. We have recently let a 10-year contract to continue this important work.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to publish an assessment of the potential average costs to (a) pubs, restaurants and cafes and (b) bed and breakfast, hotels and self-catering accommodation providers associated with the decarbonisation of heating proposals contained within the forthcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Alongside the Heat and Buildings Strategy, the Government aims to consult on new regulations to phase out fossil fuel heating in businesses and public buildings off the gas grid. We will publish an impact assessment alongside this consultation, which will include details on additional upfront costs to non-domestic buildings for transitioning to low carbon heating. The impact assessment will not break down the cost by building or occupancy type, however.
The Government acknowledges the need to take a fair and proportionate approach in the support it provides businesses on their path to net zero. We will seek views on how to best support businesses transition to low-carbon heating through the upcoming consultation.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 18 May 2021 to Question 327 on Armed Forces: Overseas Aid, what estimate has made of the total cost of the delivery of aid and relief efforts by the UK's armed forces in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.
Answered by James Heappey
Overseas aid provided through the Official Development Assistance (ODA) mechanism is reported in accordance with the calendar year rather than financial year, therefore, Defence had reported a spend of £6.08 million in 2019 and a provisional figure of £5.18 million has been reported in 2020. The expenditure for 2021 is still to be determined and will be published in 2022. The cost of Defence providing overseas relief in 2019-20 totalled £730,000 and £548,000 in 2020-21, however these figures do not include Defence's support to the COVID19 crisis overseas (Operation BROADSHARE), which to date is estimated to have cost £370,000. There may be other instances between 2019-2021 where Defence provided aid/relief, however these were not recorded centrally.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
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 (a) potential merits of an extension to the Trade Credit Reinsurance Scheme beyond 30 June 2021 and (b) potential effect of that extension on the hospitality sector.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Trade Credit Reinsurance Scheme has successfully supported over half a million businesses across a range of different sectors to keep trading throughout the pandemic.
The Government is working closely with businesses and participating insurers to ensure businesses continue to be able to access appropriate levels of credit insurance coverage to support economic recovery.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to simplify and homogenise across local authorities the process of applying for business rates relief under the Government’s new £1.5bn for businesses affected by covid-19 outside the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Department will ensure that local authorities have the guidance they need to deliver the additional £1.5 billion business rates support package once primary legislation is passed, in line with the announcement on 25 March. As with other business rates reliefs, officials will work closely with local government on the development of the relief scheme and guidance for local authorities will be published in due course.