Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has plans to make (a) swimming pools and (b) leisure centres eligible for support under the Energy Intensive Industries Exemption Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
There are currently no plans to review the list of Energy and Trade Intensive Industries eligible for support under the Energy Bill Discount Scheme. The Government has taken a consistent approach to identifying the most energy and trade intensive sectors, with all sectors that meet agreed thresholds for energy and trade intensity eligible for Energy and Trade Intensive Industries support. These thresholds have been set at sectors falling above the 80th percentile for energy intensity and 60th percentile for trade intensity, plus any sectors eligible for the existing energy compensation and exemption schemes.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 introducing a day one right to request flexible working from job offer rather than first day of employment.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government consulted on whether all employees should be given a ‘day one’ right to request flexible working in 2021. Having reviewed consultation responses from a range of stakeholders, the Government decided to proceed with plans to extend the right to all employees from their first day of employment.
This conclusion was set out in our response to the consultation “Making Flexible Working the Default”, which was published in September 2022.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 help protect industry from potential risks posed by future pandemics; and if he will increase research and development science spending to help reduce those risks.
Answered by George Freeman
The UK is at the forefront of pandemic preparedness research, including the development of advanced vaccines, building on the success of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine. This includes allocating £354 million to life sciences manufacturing through the Global Britain Investment Fund to strengthen UK vaccine manufacturing resilience.
BEIS stands ready to support businesses through any future pandemic, tailored to the circumstances at the time. We are increasing public R&D spending to £20 billion per annum by 2024-25, reaffirming BEIS’ record £39.8 billion allocation to 2024-25. This includes £25.1 billion for UK Research and Innovation, which provides significant funding for pandemic preparedness.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the BEIS consultation entitled Making Flexible Working the Default published in September 2021, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandating publishing of parental leave policies as part of gender pay gap reporting.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government consulted on whether employers should be required to publish and report on their family-related leave and pay policies in 2019. Having reviewed consultation responses from a range of stakeholders and taken account of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government decided that such a requirement should be considered as part of the process of considering how successful the Gender Pay Gap Reporting Regulations have been, and how Gender Pay Gap Reporting may be taken forward.
A fully considered review of Gender Pay Gap Reporting will be published in due course.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 plans to reform the Default Tariff Act to extend Ofgem's regulatory powers to ensure that price caps apply to commercial contracts bought by communal heating systems.
Answered by Graham Stuart
There are currently no plans to reform the existing Default Tariff Act for heat networks. The Government has included powers within the Energy Bill, introduced to Parliament in July this year, which would enable price caps to be set in the heat networks sector. However, the Government has said it will proceed cautiously in setting price caps to avoid undermining investment in the sector and putting at risk the supply of heat to customers.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 bring forward legislative proposals on fracking; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of permitting fracking on the Government's net zero emissions target for 2050.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has adopted a presumption against issuing any further hydraulic fracturing consents. This is an effective moratorium on fracking and is in line with the commitment made in the 2019 Conservative Manifesto. This position will be maintained until compelling new evidence is provided which addresses concerns around the prediction and management of induced seismicity. There are no plans to put the moratorium on a legislative basis at this time.
Assessing the impact on net zero where there is an ongoing moratorium in place would not be a good use of Government resources.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 to help improve working conditions and employment rights in the fashion industry.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government takes enforcement of employment rights across the whole economy seriously. This is why the Government has more than doubled the budget for national minimum wage compliance and enforcement to £27.8 million for 2022/23, up from £13.2 million in 2015/16.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 he has made of the impact of solar powered energy on (a) energy security (b) the price of energy bills.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Solar is a key part of the UK’s energy mix and needs sustained growth in capacity in the next decade to support the Government’s energy security goals, as well as the delivery of net zero. Utility-scale solar is now one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation. Deploying more home grown solar will help limit household electricity bills and ensure Britain is less affected by fluctuations in volatile global gas prices.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 encourage the deployment of renewable energy sources in (a) new build and (b) existing social housing.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Improved energy efficiency standards for new builds came into force on 15 June 2022. To meet these new standards, most new buildings are likely to be built with renewable energy sources, principally rooftop solar panels.
The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund is a £3.8bn Government manifesto commitment over a 10-year period to improve the energy performance of social rented homes, on the pathway to Net Zero 2050. The SHDF Wave 2.1 competition will allocate up to £800m to support the installation of energy performance measures, including renewable energy sources, in social homes.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 has taken in response to the closure of the Corporate re-domiciliation consultation.
Answered by Jane Hunt
The Government published a summary of responses to the consultation on 12 April 2022 (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/corporate-re-domiciliation).
As set out in the response, it is the Government’s intention to introduce a UK corporate re-domiciliation regime, consulting further as appropriate.