Tag: Callum McCaig

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent estimate her Department has made of the amount of carbon dioxide displaced in the UK by installed renewable heat technologies.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department has made projections of carbon dioxide savings (MtCO2) in the Updated Energy & Emissions Projections (EEP), last updated Sept 2014. In the absence of funding arrangements after 2015/16, these carbon savings assume an extrapolation of RHI deployment to 2020.

The projections cover carbon dioxide displacement from the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), the main scheme in its heat strategy. The Department has not made projections for renewable heat carbon savings from technologies not supported by the RHI scheme.

The projected savings will be updated if required for any RHI scheme changes following the Spending Review outcome.

The EEP, which include the relevant carbon saving projections from the RHI are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/406805/Copy_of_Annex_D__corrected_17-Feb-2015_.xls.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the provisions in the Trade Union Bill on industrial relations within the civil service.

Matthew Hancock

Modernising the law governing Trade Unions will improve industrial relations. We have already seen the benefits in the Civil Service of reforming facility time, where we have delivered a saving to the taxpayer of over £52million, and the majority of departments have removed the outdated system of collecting union dues by check off. These benefits will now be delivered across the public sector.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions she has had with the oil and gas industry on the relationship between maintaining safety standards and reducing the cost of production.

Andrea Leadsom

The regulation of the safety of offshore oil and gas installations in external waters is a matter for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), working as part of the Offshore Safety Directive Regulator partnership. DECC and the Oil and Gas Authority are in regular contact with the industry and HSE regarding a range of offshore infrastructure issues, including the relationship between maintaining safety standards and reducing the cost of production. Together, we aim to ensure that industry resources are directed to maximising safe, sustainable production.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of the budget for the National Measurement System was spent through (a) NEL Ltd, (b) the National Physical Laboratory and (c) LGC over the last five years.

Margot James

The National Measurement System (NMS) is funded by BEIS, on behalf of Government as a whole, through a portfolio of programmes encompassing a wide range of scientific disciplines.

The budget distribution across the NMS programmes was informed by the NMS Strategy 2009-2016.

	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
NPL*	£39.2M	£39.4M	£39.3M	£39.3M	£40.3M
LGC	£6.7M	£6.8M	£6.9M	£7M	£7.1M
NEL	£3.6M	£3.5M	£3.5M	£3.4M	£3.5M
NMO	£1M	£1M	£1M	£1M	£1M**
NGML	£75k	£75k	£75k	£75k	£75k
Int. Subs	£900k	£900k	£900k	£900k	£900k

* Figure quoted for NPL is adjusted to reflect the rent returned to the department by NPL.

**Now included within BEIS operating costs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect on investor confidence in the UK electricity generation market following the recent announcements surrounding the Renewables Obligation closure and reductions in feed-in tariffs.

Andrea Leadsom

We conducted an engagement exercise to better understand the views of stakeholders on the early closure of the Renewable Obligation to onshore wind. To protect investor confidence a grace period was proposed in June, and we have subsequently proposed amendments to this in response to stakeholder feedback over the summer. We consider this will strike the right balance between consumer and industry interests.

We also ran a consultation on changes to support for small scale solar projects under the Renewable Obligation and one on the feed-in tariff review. We strongly welcomed evidence from the sector during these consultations and we hope this will allow us to improve our understanding of the impact on jobs and investment.

The measures we announced are about getting costs under control, which is essential to provide the foundations for clean electricity investment in the future. We will still be delivering at or above the EMR Delivery Plan ranges and reaching at least 30% electricity generation from renewables by 2020. So we are still supporting a strong pipeline of projects that are bringing jobs and investment across the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-12-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to what purposes the ring-fenced capital budget for the carbon capture and storage competition has been reallocated.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government set out its capital budget and priorities for this Spending Review period on 25 November 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Health and Safety Executive on ensuring reductions in operators’ production costs do not adversely affect the safety of offshore workers in the oil and gas industry.

Justin Tomlinson

I have had discussions with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) officials on the range of factors affecting offshore safety. HSE has confirmed that it is placing increasing emphasis upon maintenance standards as part of its interventions at offshore installations. I support this approach.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2016-10-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with the CEOs of the Big Six energy companies on the availability of the cheapest energy tariff for existing customers.

Jesse Norman

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Ministers will be meeting with a number of energy supply companies in due course to discuss a wide range of issues. Government’s focus remains firmly on getting the best deal for consumers and ensuring the market works for everyone.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions she has had with other Government departments and in Cabinet Committees and sub-committees on the resilience and security of the UK’s electricity supply.

Andrea Leadsom

DECC regularly discusses the resilience and security of the UK’s electricity supply with the Governments Departments in committees and sub-Committees.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-12-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assumptions her Department relied on to produce the information on expenditure on Contracts for Difference in respect of each eligible technology that it provided to inform the Office for Budget Responsibility assessment of the Levy Control Framework.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department takes into account a number of factors to project Levy Control Framework (LCF) spending in relation to Contracts for Difference (CfD) contracts, including capacity for each individual project, strike prices, wholesale electricity prices, load factors and commissioning dates. Some of the CfD predictions that fed into the Office for Budget Responsibility November LCF forecasts are already in the public domain, such as strike prices for signed CfD contracts which are available on the LCCC website. Some predictions are based on commercial intelligence and sensitive information from the developers which we cannot disclose.