Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what information her Department holds on the number of people employed in the (a) wind and (b) solar energy sector in Yorkshire and the Humber in each of the last 10 years.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills published a report in March 2015 on “The Size and Performance of the UK Low Carbon Economy”. This contains estimates of the number of people employed directly within different sectors of the low carbon economy, and in their supply chains:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/low-carbon-economy-size-and-performance.

The report estimates that for 2013 in Yorkshire and Humber there were 2,900 people employed in the solar photovoltaics sector, with equivalent estimates of 2,100 and 500 for the onshore and offshore wind sectors respectively. These figures include those directly employed by firms in the sector, and resulting jobs within the supply chain.

One thousand new jobs will be created in Hull at Siemens’ offshore wind manufacturing plant which is due to be operational from 2017 and will also create additional jobs in the supply chain.