Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 remove the UK from the Energy Charter Treaty.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is closely monitoring developments in the Energy Charter Treaty as part of its engagement with the Treaty’s modernisation process.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 review the decision to award photography studios a £2,600 restart grant; and if he will allocate additional funds to local authorities so that a grant of £8,000 can be awarded to those studios.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Restart Grants announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors, to support businesses to reopen as Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed.
Strand One of the Restart Grants aims to support non-essential retail with grants of up to £6,000. Stand Two is to support hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses, with grants of up to £18,000. The higher amount is in recognition that these sectors will have been allowed to open at a later date and are likely to be more severely impacted by remaining restrictions.
The main service principle will determine which threshold of funding a business receives. Businesses will need to declare which is their main service. Local Authorities will need to exercise their reasonable judgement to determine whether or not a business is eligible for grants, and under which funding threshold, and be satisfied that they have taken reasonable and practicable steps to pay eligible businesses, and to pay them the correct amount.
Local Authorities in England have also been allocated £2bn in additional funding via the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), to provide essential support that best suits their area. The latest FAQs issued to Local Authorities on 6 May explain that ARG funding can be used as a top-up for businesses that are in receipt of grants under other schemes.
Further guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 made of the potential effect of the decision on the level of coronavirus restart grant to be awarded to photography studios on the revenue of those studios in the context of the restrictions placed on their business as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Restart Grants announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors, to support businesses to reopen as Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed.
Strand One of the Restart Grants aims to support non-essential retail with grants of up to £6,000. Stand Two is to support hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses, with grants of up to £18,000. The higher amount is in recognition that these sectors will have been allowed to open at a later date and are likely to be more severely impacted by remaining restrictions.
The main service principle will determine which threshold of funding a business receives. Businesses will need to declare which is their main service. Local Authorities will need to exercise their reasonable judgement to determine whether or not a business is eligible for grants, and under which funding threshold, and be satisfied that they have taken reasonable and practicable steps to pay eligible businesses, and to pay them the correct amount.
Local Authorities in England have also been allocated £2bn in additional funding via the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), to provide essential support that best suits their area. The latest FAQs issued to Local Authorities on 6 May explain that ARG funding can be used as a top-up for businesses that are in receipt of grants under other schemes.
Further guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason photography studios are no longer in the leisure services category for covid-19 support grants.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Restart Grants announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors, to support businesses to reopen as Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed.
Strand One of the Restart Grants aims to support non-essential retail with grants of up to £6,000. Stand Two is to support hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses, with grants of up to £18,000. The higher amount is in recognition that these sectors will have been allowed to open at a later date and are likely to be more severely impacted by remaining restrictions.
The main service principle will determine which threshold of funding a business receives. Businesses will need to declare which is their main service. Local Authorities will need to exercise their reasonable judgement to determine whether or not a business is eligible for grants, and under which funding threshold, and be satisfied that they have taken reasonable and practicable steps to pay eligible businesses, and to pay them the correct amount.
Local Authorities in England have also been allocated £2bn in additional funding via the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), to provide essential support that best suits their area. The latest FAQs issued to Local Authorities on 6 May explain that ARG funding can be used as a top-up for businesses that are in receipt of grants under other schemes.
Further guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many weighing and measuring products have already successfully transitioned from the EC weights and Measures directive to the UK CA directive in 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UKCA marking requirements came into force at 11pm on 31 December and apply to most products placed on the market in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) that were previously subject to CE marking requirements. The scope of the UKCA regime covers approximately 10,000 to 17,000 manufacturers across industries and product sectors.
In order to help businesses to transition to the new marking requirements, in areas where GB and EU rules remain the same, products with the CE marking, but without the UKCA marking, will be accepted on the GB market until 1 January 2022 in most cases (so long as they meet the relevant regulatory requirements). Businesses are not required to report to Government when they have transitioned to the new UKCA regime.
The Government continues to engage closely with industry to ensure that the transition to the new regime is as smooth as possible.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 products that will need to undertake the EC to UK CA transition for weights and measures equipment in 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UKCA marking requirements came into force at 11pm on 31 December and apply to most products placed on the market in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) that were previously subject to CE marking requirements. The scope of the UKCA regime covers approximately 10,000 to 17,000 manufacturers across industries and product sectors.
In order to help businesses to transition to the new marking requirements, in areas where GB and EU rules remain the same, products with the CE marking, but without the UKCA marking, will be accepted on the GB market until 1 January 2022 in most cases (so long as they meet the relevant regulatory requirements). Businesses are not required to report to Government when they have transitioned to the new UKCA regime.
The Government continues to engage closely with industry to ensure that the transition to the new regime is as smooth as possible.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many employees of the National Measurement Office are working on transitioning products that have an EC weights and measures Directive certification into a UK CA certification.
Answered by Paul Scully
The National Measurement Office (NMO) is part of the Office for Product Safety and Standards which is a directorate within the Department. NMO is an Approved Body responsible for product certification, quality management system certification, pre-assessment, and standards calibration for weights and measures instruments. Of the civil servants working in OPSS, 15 FTE are currently engaged principally on NMO functions of whom around a half are engaged on work related to the transition of certificates.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many employees work for the National Measurement Office.
Answered by Paul Scully
The National Measurement Office (NMO) is part of the Office for Product Safety and Standards which is a directorate within the Department. NMO is an Approved Body responsible for product certification, quality management system certification, pre-assessment, and standards calibration for weights and measures instruments. Of the civil servants working in OPSS, 15 FTE are currently engaged principally on NMO functions of whom around a half are engaged on work related to the transition of certificates.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2020 to Question 40974, on Postal Services: Coronavirus, whether he plans to make representations to the Royal Mail on the timeframe for reversing the temporary suspension of the Universal Service Obligation.
Answered by Paul Scully
Royal Mail’s services are playing an important part to help mitigate the impact of coronavirus on individuals, families and businesses up and down the country, particularly during this period of increased social isolation.
Following Royal Mail’s announcement on 28 April that it would be temporarily suspending Saturday letter deliveries, on 1 May it stated that six days a week letter deliveries will resume from 13 June.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 businesses that have (a) made applications for loans under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and (b) have received approval for those applications, broken down by each bank to which those businesses applied.
Answered by Paul Scully
As of 21 April, over £2.8bn worth of loans have been issued under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, to over 16,600 businesses. Lenders have received 36,000 completed applications.
The information is not currently available broken down by each lender. We are working with the British Business Bank, HM Treasury and the lenders on providing transparent and regular data publication going forward.