Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 to launch a public campaign to increase awareness of heat pumps as a low carbon heating technology.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government recognises public engagement as a vital element for successful decarbonisation of heat and buildings.
The Simple Energy Advice service has had over 1.7 million users, providing homeowners with personal, tailored advice for improving and decarbonising their homes and links to local, accredited, trusted installers. The Government is currently reviewing this service to identify potential improvements and will shortly publish a new heat pump suitability tool and use case studies to help consumers make informed choices about installing heat pumps.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme launched recently, with information published across consumer-facing websites to raise awareness of the benefits of the scheme.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
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 Professor Kevin Taylor’s research from The University of Manchester, what progress has been made on the plans outlined in the Energy Security Bill to develop Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) by making legacy data accessible to researchers developing CCUS.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
BEIS has recently published substantial updates to the CCUS Knowledge Sharing page on the Gov.uk website, which has over 3000 pages of data including past case studies, technical research and lessons learned: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/carbon-capture-and-storage-knowledge-sharing.
Asked by: Virginia Crosbie (Conservative - Ynys Môn)
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 further increasing investment in (a) onshore wind, (b) solar, (c) tidal and (d) other renewable energy sources such in order to further diversify energy generation in the UK; what steps he is taking to support the development of energy storage facilities; and what his planned timetable is for publishing the findings of the call for evidence on large scale, long duration energy storage.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is the Government’s main mechanism for supporting new low-carbon electricity generation projects in Great Britain. The fourth allocation round of the CfD scheme (AR4) opened on 13 December 2021 and aims to secure more low-carbon electricity capacity than the previous three rounds combined. AR4 is open to an expanded number of renewable technologies, including offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, tidal stream and floating offshore wind. In February, the Government also announced that the next CfD allocation round will be brought forward to March 2023, and future rounds will run annually, rather than every two years, thereafter. This will support renewable electricity producers and further drive deployment of renewable power.
In 2019 BEIS launched the Storage at Scale competition, which funded demonstration facilities for two innovative energy storage facilities. In 2021, BEIS launched a further programme, The Longer Duration Energy Storage competition. In February 2022, BEIS announced funding for 24 projects under this competition to perform engineering design or feasibility studies of their technologies. The Government is reviewing the responses to the Call for Evidence on large-scale, long-duration electricity storage, alongside analysis the Department commissioned on the role of this type of storage in the electricity system. The Government will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 report titled Auctions for allocation of offshore wind contracts for difference in the UK, published in February 2019, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding by Oxford Institute for Energy Studies that auction strike prices are unlikely to be indicative of underlying costs for renewable generators.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme operates as a competitive auction where the strike price successful participants receive is based on the clearing price, which is a product of bid prices. It is for developers to consider a bid price that is sustainable for their project, based on their own, forward-looking assessment of their likely project costs and revenues, and projects are only paid for the electricity they generate.
The Department publishes its own view of future electricity generation costs by technology – the latest version is from 2020, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-2020.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what financial support his Department is providing to SMEs that wish to become carbon negative.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Businesses have significant power to drive change towards achieving our domestic net zero goal. To underline the importance of this area, last year the Government led the Race to Zero campaign targeting small and microbusinesses across the UK. Over 2,700 have joined the Race to Zero to date.
The Government has worked closely with the international UN-backed SME Climate Hub, which is part of the global Race to Zero campaign, to embed a UK campaign page known as the UK Business Climate Hub. This campaign page offers free advice to small business on how to be greener and save money, along with inspiring UK case studies. Upon making their SME climate commitment to join the Race to Zero, businesses gain free access to a suite of resources to help them measure, reduce and report on emissions.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to support SMEs who wish to make their business carbon neutral.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Businesses have significant power to drive change towards achieving our domestic net zero goal. To underline the importance of this area, last year the Government led the Race to Zero campaign targeting small and microbusinesses across the UK. Over 2,700 have joined the Race to Zero to date.
The Government has worked closely with the international UN-backed SME Climate Hub, which is part of the global Race to Zero campaign, to embed a UK campaign page known as the UK Business Climate Hub. This campaign page offers free advice to small business on how to be greener and save money, along with inspiring UK case studies. Upon making their SME climate commitment to join the Race to Zero, businesses gain free access to a suite of resources to help them measure, reduce and report on emissions.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the total cost is of his Department's SME Climate Hub to date.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has worked closely with the international UN-backed SME Climate Hub, which is part of the global Race to Zero campaign, to embed a UK campaign page known as the UK Business Climate Hub. This campaign page offers free advice to small business on how to be greener and save money, along with inspiring UK case studies. The cost of developing the UK Business Climate Hub was £46,800, including VAT.
Upon making their SME climate commitment to join the Race to Zero, businesses gain free access to a suite of resources to help them measure, reduce and report on emissions.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
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 effectiveness of the SME Climate Hub at encouraging businesses to sign up to that campaign.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The 2,730 UK businesses who have made SME Climate Commitments and joined the Race to Zero represent ~80% of global signups. We continue to work with the international SME Climate Hub team to improve the platform content with additional tools, and that of the UK Business Climate Hub through case studies and other features.
The UK Business Climate Hub, a UK page developed by the Government which is embedded in the international SME Climate Hub, attracted an average of 3,000 visitors per day, or 90,000 per month in the months leading up to COP26.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to to extend eligibility for the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant to (a) gyms, (b) yoga studies and (c) other sports businesses.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has delivered to Local Authorities over £700 million for grants to support businesses most impacted by Omicron, part of a £1 billion wider support package announced by the Chancellor on 21 December.
The Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant supports businesses that offer in-person services, where the main service and activity takes place in a fixed rate-paying premises, in the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors. For the purposes of this scheme, the definition of a leisure business excludes gyms and sports businesses where physical exercise or training is conducted on an individual basis or group basis. The funding supports sectors where social mixing is a primary motivation for consumers.
Alongside the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant, more than £100 million worth of Additional Restrictions Grant discretionary funding has also been made available to Local Authorities in England to support other businesses severely impacted by Omicron. Gyms, yoga studios and other sports businesses may be eligible for this scheme. Local Authorities have discretion to allocate this funding to businesses most in need.
The Guidance for both OHLG and ARG schemes can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities
On top of wider economic support, the Government announced a £100 million support fund for Local Authority leisure centres to ensure these important facilities remain available once public health restrictions are lifted.
Sport England has provided £270 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, via a range of funds. This includes £8,991,129 on multisport projects which included yoga, and of which £108,573 was specifically to fund yoga.
Asked by: Colum Eastwood (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
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 launch a new round of applications to the Automotive Transformation Fund following the completion of the last round that closed on 24 November 2021.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) supports late-stage R&D and capital investments across strategically important parts of the electric vehicle supply chain.
On 24 January, we opened Round 18 of the Expression of Interest competition to support capital investments (https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1069/overview), along with Round 3 of the competition to support Feasibility Studies (https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1094/overview).
Information about open funding competitions and further detail on scope and eligibility can be found on the IFS portal:
https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/search.