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847721

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Energy: Infrastructure
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the amount of money invested by energy companies in infrastructure in the UK in the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	North West Norfolk
tabling member printed	Sir Henry Bellingham
uin	129397
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2018 answer text <p>The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not hold specific information regarding “energy companies”; we monitor capacity of energy generation rather than levels of investment by specific companies when in developing and implementing policy.</p><p> </p><p>The UK has made great progress in securing investment in clean and secure energy. More than £52 billion has been invested in renewable energy since 2010. We are committed to ensuring that the UK remains an attractive destination for investment as the UK negotiates its withdrawal from the EU.</p><p> </p><p>Through our Industrial Strategy, we are investing £2.5 billion to support low carbon innovation in the UK between 2015 and 2021, and providing £31 billion to the National Productivity Fund to support investments in innovation and infrastructure.</p> answering member constituency Devizes answering member printed Claire Perry grouped question UIN 129398 question first answered 05/03/2018 17:28:14 answering member 3974 label Biography information for Claire Perry
tabling member	1441 label Biography information for Lord Bellingham

847722

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Energy: Infrastructure
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has forecast investment in UK infrastructure by energy companies in the next five years; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	North West Norfolk
tabling member printed	Sir Henry Bellingham
uin	129398
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2018 answer text <p>The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not hold specific information regarding “energy companies”; we monitor capacity of energy generation rather than levels of investment by specific companies when in developing and implementing policy.</p><p> </p><p>The UK has made great progress in securing investment in clean and secure energy. More than £52 billion has been invested in renewable energy since 2010. We are committed to ensuring that the UK remains an attractive destination for investment as the UK negotiates its withdrawal from the EU.</p><p> </p><p>Through our Industrial Strategy, we are investing £2.5 billion to support low carbon innovation in the UK between 2015 and 2021, and providing £31 billion to the National Productivity Fund to support investments in innovation and infrastructure.</p> answering member constituency Devizes answering member printed Claire Perry grouped question UIN 129397 question first answered 05/03/2018 17:28:14 answering member 3974 label Biography information for Claire Perry
tabling member	1441 label Biography information for Lord Bellingham

847764

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Cryptocurrencies
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been allocated to research opportunities for digital currency technology and its potential applications.
tabling member constituency	North Norfolk
tabling member printed	Norman Lamb
uin	129440
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2018 answer text <p>The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) leads the cross Council Digital Economy (DE) Theme, which incorporates the digital currency technology and associated distributed ledger technology activities, announced in the March 2015 Budget. To date, the DE Theme has invested around £7.2 million in the following activities:</p><p> </p><ul><li>A £260,000 project - Third Party Dematerialisation and Rematerialisation of Capital.</li><li>An 18-month £0.4 million project investigating the phenomena of cryptocurrencies and their associated underlying technology - Cryptocurrency Effects in Digital Transformations (CREDIT)</li><li>A £3.7 million for seven interdisciplinary feasibility studies that will explore and understanding transformative use cases of distributed ledger technology “Applications of Distributed Ledger Technology” resulting in. Details of the projects are available on the EPSRC website at: <a href="http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPanelROL.aspx?PanelId=1-3X22ML&amp;RankingListId=1-3X22MS" target="_blank">http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPanelROL.aspx?PanelId=1-3X22ML&amp;RankingListId=1-3X22MS</a></li><li>Three projects relevant to research in applications of distributed ledger technology were supported under “Broad applications of distributed ledger technologies” as one of six focal areas in a £10 million call for research proposals on the Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security in the Digital Economy call (2015) - see <a href="http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPanel.aspx?PanelId=1-37PAUA" target="_blank">http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPanel.aspx?PanelId=1-37PAUA</a>)</li></ul><p> </p><p>Innovate UK has funded projects that develop and commercial digital currency technologies with various sectoral applications, related to blockchain and distributed ledger projects for use in areas like provenance tracking of goods. Since 2004 Innovate UK has invested nearly £2 million into these technologies.</p> answering member constituency East Surrey answering member printed Mr Sam Gyimah question first answered 05/03/2018 17:28:28 answering member 3980 label Biography information for Mr Sam Gyimah
tabling member	1439 label Biography information for Norman Lamb

847843

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Financial Reporting Council
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 21 February (HL5518), when each director of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) was informed that the FRC was a public body; how they were informed, and how this was documented; whether they will place in the Library of the House letters of appointment for each director at the date of each appointment, rather than the recent general letter of appointment dated 30 January; and whether they will set out how a public body can operate as a public body if the public has not been informed that it is a public body.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted
uin	HL5820
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2018 answer text <p>The terms of appointment for each director of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) mirror the terms of appointment placed into the Library of the House for my answer HL5518. I will ask the FRC to provide the letters of appointment for each director and will place these in the Libraries of the House in due course with appropriate redactions.</p><p> </p><p>The classification of the FRC in 2004 and the further considerations by the Office for National Statistics up to 2014 were published. The FRC is included in the whole of Government accounts pursuant to legislation.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 05/03/2018 15:27:17 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	4562 label Biography information for Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted

847844

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Financial Reporting Council
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 20 February (HL5467), whether the Financial Reporting Council changed the wording after my question (HL4627) was tabled on 11 January; and why the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 1 February (HL5095) referred to a position with future effect, not the past and present position.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted
uin	HL5821
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2018 answer text <p>The fact sheet <ins class="ministerial">attached to the</ins> <del class="ministerial">placed into the Libraries of the House in</del> response <ins class="ministerial">given</ins> to question HL5095 used the word “requested” and is dated June 2017.</p><p> </p><p>My answer to question HL5095 stated the position as of 1<sup>st</sup> February 2018.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 05/03/2018 15:27:58 question first ministerially corrected 26/03/2018 15:35:43 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley previous answer version 44560 answering member printed Lord Henley answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	4562 label Biography information for Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted

847845

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Company Accounts
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 12 February (HL5280), what were the circumstances that led to the UK voluntarily adopting International Accounting Standards (IAS) for separate, company-only, accounts by invoking the option under Article 5 of the IAS Regulation 2001; and whether, prior to the UK invoking that option, the Financial Reporting Council or Department for Trade and Industry had anticipated the difficulties that this option would create for the use of separate accounts for capital maintenance purposes.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted
uin	HL5822
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2018 answer text <p>The Department for Trade and Industry consulted on the adoption of “International Accounting Standards” in 2002 (URN 2002/1158). The consultation considered whether the UK should exercise the Member State option under Article 5 of the IAS Regulation and, in particular, whether to extend the application of the Regulation to the individual accounts of publicly traded companies.</p><p> </p><p>The consultation stated that:</p><p> </p><p>“There may be good reasons to exercise this option in order to help internal consistency and comparability of accounts within the same group and assist in preparation of consolidated accounts. There is the additional advantage that the current practice of presenting entity financial statements of the parent with the group accounts as one package could continue. With no extension the practice would probably have to change, as it would be cumbersome and confusing to have to explain two different bases of preparation. We estimate that this would affect around 2700 companies.”</p><p> </p><p>The Government considered the responses to the consultation and conducted a full assessment of the costs and benefits of the various approaches to implement the IAS Regulation. Following this consideration the Government concluded that it would implement the option in the regulation, including to extend the application of the Regulation to the individual accounts of publicly traded companies.</p><p> </p><p>The Companies Act 1985 (International Accounting Standards and Other Accounting Amendments) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004 / 2947) provided for the application of the International Accounting Standards Regulation. The impact assessment accompanying the regulations sets out the Government’s assessment of the costs and benefits. It concluded that the Governments resulting policy on taking up the option in Article 5 overall had the following benefits:</p><p> </p><p>“Parent companies and building societies and subsidiaries in groups will be able to prepare their accounts to one framework of accounting standards. Companies and building societies that do business or seek capital across borders would be able to prepare their accounts to adopted IAS for ease of comparison. Comparability of accounts will assist, shareholders, analysts and other users of accounts.”</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 05/03/2018 15:29:38 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	4562 label Biography information for Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted

847846

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Banks: Company Accounts
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) first became aware of any problems with International Accounting Standards for the capital adequacy of particular banks; by what means the FRC found out about such problems; which banks any such problems applied to; and how the FRC responded to any identified problems.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted
uin	HL5823
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2018 answer text <p>The Prudential Regulation Authority is responsible for regulation of the capital adequacy of banks. Prior to 2013 this was the responsibility of the Financial Services Authority. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) was not aware of the contribution that certain features of the International Accounting Standards made to the problem of the capital adequacy of the banks until the problem was a matter of public knowledge. The FRC has engaged with UK Government, Europe, internationally, and with the International Accounting Standards Board since then to develop reforms to the standards, which address the concerns that have been identified.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 05/03/2018 15:40:59 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	4562 label Biography information for Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted

847847

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Company Accounts
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 12 February (HL5214), on which issues does the Financial Reporting Council now accept the position set out by Mr Bompas QC; and in particular whether section 831 of the Companies Act 2006 is one such issue.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted
uin	HL5824
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2018 answer text <p>As stated in the reply given to the noble Baroness on 12<sup>th</sup> February 2018 to question HL5214, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) sought advice on a range of matters from Martin Moore QC and accepted the advice it received. This includes the advice relating to the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 that determines distributable profits. Section 831 forms part of those requirements. The FRC has not changed its views on those matters.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 05/03/2018 15:30:45 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	4562 label Biography information for Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted

847877

registered interest
date	23/02/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Pregnancy: Conditions of Employment
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase understanding of, and compliance with, employment laws relating to pregnant women and new mothers.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL5854
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2018 answer text <p>In November 2017 ACAS published comprehensive guidance on pregnancy and maternity discrimination for both women and for businesses.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has recently updated the MAT B1 form (the form which enables a pregnant woman to claim Statutory Maternity Pay from her employer or Maternity Allowance from Jobcentre Plus) to include a link to advice and guidance on employment rights for pregnant women and new mothers. The NHS’s Start4Life campaign (an information service for expectant and new parents) now provides the same link in its emails. In the Government response to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices we further committed to update and consolidate the pregnancy and maternity discrimination pages on GOV.UK by summer 2018.</p><p>The Government continues to work with EHRC and its Working Forward campaign. This nationwide campaign, backed by some of the UK’s leading businesses and industry bodies, aims to make workplaces the best they can be for pregnant women and new parents. HSE’s web page on protecting new and expectant mothers provides a wide range of guidance on pregnancy related issues in the workplace. There is also clear guidance for employees to report concerns if they believe health and safety law is being broken. In addition, Government funds both the ACAS helpline and the Equality Advisory and Support Service, which provide free advice in this area.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 09/03/2018 12:02:12 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick