Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much funding from the Automotive Transformation Fund (a) has been spent and (b) has been allocated for the spending review period to March 2025.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
In 2020, £500m of Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) funding was announced in the Ten Point Plan. The 2021 Net Zero Strategy announced a further £350m funding for the ATF between 2022/23-2024/25. £136m of this budget, for financial year 2022-23, was later reprioritised by BEIS (predecessor department) for investment in Sizewell C
As of September 2023, the total value of offers made under the ATF is over £550 million. In addition, we are in active discussions with investors on a wide range of exciting new projects for the UK's electric vehicle supply chain.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much funding from the Automotive Transformation Fund she plans to allocate to (a) existing legacy car and van manufacturers and (b) new entrants to the market.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Automotive Transformation Fund offers funding for capital and associated industrial research projects that support the industrialisation of a high value, electrified automotive supply at scale in the UK. We continue to work with industry to unlock private investment in our EV supply chain via the ATF. This includes unlocking strategic investments in gigafactories, motors and drives, power electronics, and fuel cell systems.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the review into the Government’s approach to attracting foreign direct investment led by Lord Harrington of Watford will consider the Government’s approach to attracting new foreign direct investment into recycling infrastructure.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Lord Harrington’s review into attracting foreign direct investment is primarily, though not exclusively, focused on the Chancellor’s five key growth sectors. One of the key growth sectors is Green Industries, and the review will consider actions to improve investment across Green Industries, including recycling infrastructure.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she plans to encourage investment in (a) chemical recycling and (b) other new green technology.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Chemical recycling covers a range of emerging technologies that could potentially offer a complementary recycling route for plastics where mechanical recycling is impractical or uneconomic. The Government has funded innovative demonstrator projects, including on chemical recycling, through UK Research and Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging programme. In April of this year HM Treasury announced plans to consult on whether and how chemically recycled content could be accounted for in the Plastics Packaging Tax using a mass balance chain of custody model.
The Government works with public finance institutions such as UK Infrastructure Bank, British Business Bank, UK Research and Innovation, Export Credit Agency and UK Export Finance, to support investment in green technologies.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much of the funding the UK committed to the NDC Partnership from 2019–25 has been disbursed.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The amount of funding the that the UK has disbursed to NDC Partnership can be found at https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/projects/GB-GOV-13-ICF-0008-NDCP/transactions.