Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Government's timeframe is for (a) consulting on and (b) confirming plans to spend recent allocations of flood defence funds in Blackpool South.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency is currently working with Blackpool Council (the respective Coast Protection Authority) to progress three coastal schemes on its coastal frontage. Consultation has already commenced on the two Bispham schemes and a second consultation event will take place in early 2022.
The sea bees re-profiling work at South Shore has an allocation of £7 million and is programmed to commence 2024/25 through to 2026/27. Initial work on this has not commenced yet. (Sea bees are hexagonal concrete revetments designed to dissipate the energy of the waves.)
The Environment Agency works closely with Local Authorities, Risk Management Authorities (RMAs) and Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) to ensure that all projects are well represented within the capital programme.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what representations he has received from the Scottish Government on Scottish Ports and their ownership by companies owning larger and potentially competitor ports in England.
Answered by Paul Scully
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has regular discussions with the Scottish Government on a number of issues. Responsibility for investigating individual and market-wide competition issues falls to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s independent competition authority. The CMA has discretion to conduct market studies and investigations as it considers most appropriate.
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, what steps his Department is taking to raise awareness among consumers of the potential benefits of installing a heat pump.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Improving public awareness of the benefits of installing a heat pump will be a key enabler for the large-scale decarbonisation of heat. The Government are currently reviewing the provision of advice delivered through government-endorsed Simple Energy Advice Service, which offers impartial and independent information to consumers on a range of low-carbon heating and energy efficiency solutions.
The Government is also improving our evidence base and considering the best tools to raise public awareness, through the forthcoming £60m Heat Pump Ready Programme, which aims to develop approaches and products to engage effectively with home owners and other key stakeholders who can help to deliver high-density heat pump deployment across the UK. Additionally, the outputs of the ongoing £14.6m Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project, including case studies, will be used to raise consumer awareness of heat pumps.
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, when his Department plans to publish the results of the Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As part of the Department’s £505 million Energy Innovation Programme, the Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project is showcasing the feasibility of installing heat pumps in a range of homes across the UK.
The installation phase of the Project is coming to a close and initial results, providing installation information, will be published later this year. The Project will continue to monitor performance data from the installed heat pumps over the winter period and further Project results and findings from that phase, including case studies, will be published.
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, if he will provide an update on the progress of Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As part of the Department’s £505 million Energy Innovation Programme, the Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project is showcasing the feasibility of installing heat pumps in a range of homes across the UK.
The installation phase for all the Project’s heat pump systems will be completed shortly. The Project will continue to monitor performance data from the installed heat pumps over the winter period and further Project results and findings from that phase, including case studies, will be published.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 plans to take to support the decarbonisation of the UK steel industry between now and 2023 ahead of the Clean Steel Fund’s allocation.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department announced the Clean Steel Fund (CSF) in 2019 and it is currently being designed and developed.
Other schemes are available to support the steel sector which are live now, including the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF). Through grant funding, the IETF can support energy efficiency upgrades and decarbonisation engineering studies, which are needed to prepare the sector for more ambitious decarbonisation schemes in the future.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has plans to amend the definition of non-road mobile machinery in the Energy Act 2004 to limit the eligibility of biofuel suppliers that claim Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates on biofuel supplied to diesel powered generating sets for the purpose of increasing the availability of renewable fuels for use by the UK aviation sector.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) renewable fuel used in mobile generators is eligible for Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates (RTFCs). Suppliers of fossil fuel used in mobile generators and other forms of non-road mobile machinery are also subject to an obligation to ensure renewable fuels are supplied in the UK. Suppliers of fossil fuels used in aviation are not currently obligated under the RTFO, but renewable fuels used in the sector are potentially eligible for RTFCs. The Department has no plans to limit the supply of renewable fuel to mobile generators for the purposes of increasing the availability of renewable fuels in the aviation sector.
In July the Department launched a consultation on proposals for a UK sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) mandate requiring jet fuel suppliers to blend an increasing proportion of SAF into aviation fuel from 2025. The consultation closes on 19 September. The modelling supporting the consultation has taken into consideration the interactions between fuels needed for road, non-road mobile machinery and aviation, and the availability of sustainable feedstocks and renewable fuels. A summary of responses including next steps will be published in due course and the modelling will be updated considering evidence from the consultation.
Policy development on the RTFO takes into account competing demands for renewable fuel resources across different transport sectors. It is also informed by regular reviews to ensure the scheme is delivering cost effective carbon savings in support of UK carbon budgets. It is widely understood that the availability of biomass used to produce biofuels is limited. So, these finite resources need to be deployed in sectors of the economy where greater greenhouse gas savings can be achieved, or sectors that have fewer decarbonisation options, such as aviation. The renewable fuel market will transform and adjust through this decade and beyond. As we transition to electric vehicles, some biomass and other sources of renewable fuel will be freed up to accommodate increased use in SAF.
Biofuels are traded in a competitive global market and the RTFO certificate trading scheme includes several measures to ensure costs passed on to the consumer are minimised and targets for the supply of renewable fuels are met. For example, the RTFO scheme includes a buy-out mechanism. The buy-out price, which was reviewed and updated last year, is set at a level which ensures that in normal market conditions there is a strong commercial incentive for suppliers to discharge their obligation through the supply of renewable fuels. Suppliers of fossil fuels to the non-road mobile machinery and diesel road vehicle sectors therefore have a strong incentive to meet their obligations under the RTFO through ensuring the supply of renewable fuels.
There are no direct benefits to the UK public of improved air quality in international airspace, defined as airspace which is outside of the standard state territorial limits. Studies have shown that NOx emissions from aircraft above 1,000 feet are unlikely to have a significant impact on local air quality. However, on top of the carbon emissions reductions and economic benefits associated with SAF use and production, there is growing evidence that SAF also reduces sulphur dioxide and particulate matter emissions. Thereby improving local air quality during take-off and landing, as well as other non-CO2 impacts of aeroplanes, including contrails.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent studies his Department has undertaken on green alternatives to liquefied petroleum gas.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and, as part of the work to meet that commitment, has taken great strides to promote green alternatives to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other fossil fuels in a range of sectors. This has included gathering evidence on a number of different potential technologies including electrification, hydrogen and biofuels.
For the transport sector, the Government has not undertaken any recent studies into the alternatives to LPG specifically. Our recent Transport Decarbonisation Plan set out how we plan to cut emissions in the transport sector. This includes the phase-out of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, and, from 2035, the requirement for all new cars and vans to be 100% zero emission at the tailpipe. Renewable alternatives to LPG, including for example bio-LPG, are supported through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, which has been in place since 2008. In regard to hydrogen as an alternative, the Government has recently published the first ever UK Hydrogen Strategy, which builds on the Government’s ambition for 5GW low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030.
On heating in particular, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy commissioned research into the alternatives to using fossil fuels for heating off the gas grid. These can be found here and include Electric and bioenergy heating in off-gas grid homes: evidence gathering & Electric heating in rural off-gas grid dwellings: technical feasibility.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps she has taken to reduce the use of dogs for research purposes.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The NC3Rs has recently launched a £2.6 million call for the development of a virtual dog for assessing the safety of new medicines during drug development. The call is part of the NC3Rs CRACK IT Challenges competition and aims to build virtual canine tissues and organs using advanced computational and mathematical modelling approaches, ultimately to help replace the use of dogs. The Challenge builds on an international project led by the NC3Rs that has demonstrated that there are opportunities to use one rather than the standard two species for some studies in drug development.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress has been made on (a) public and (b) private funding for electrification of offshore oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf in order to reduce emissions from oil and gas production in line with the targets to 2030 contained in the North Sea Transition Deal.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Through the North Sea Transition Deal, we committed to identifying potential funding opportunities for early-stage offshore electrification studies and are making good progress on this. We continue to work with regulators and industry on addressing strategic barriers to electrification of offshore oil and gas installations.