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445837

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Green Investment Bank: Privatisation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent representations he has received on the proposed privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff West
tabling member printed	Kevin Brennan
uin	23237
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2016 answer text <p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p>The Government has received a small number of representations from interested parties since the Government’s announcement to bring in private capital to the Green Investment Bank (GIB) in June 2015.</p><p /> <p>My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills met my hon Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Graham Stuart) and representatives from E3G and Aldersgate Group in October, and I have met with the Member separately this month. The Government also meets GIB management regularly to discuss this and other issues.</p><p><strong></strong></p><br /> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 22/01/2016 14:26:32 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	1400 label Biography information for Kevin Brennan

445838

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Green Investment Bank: Privatisation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent discussions he has had with the Office for National Statistics on the issuing of special shares in the Green Investment Bank.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff West
tabling member printed	Kevin Brennan
uin	23238
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2016 answer text <p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p>The Government is currently exploring with the Office of National Statistics whether there is scope to implement a special share style arrangement in a way that would not amount to a form of state control.</p><p><strong></strong></p><br /> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 22/01/2016 14:28:03 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	1400 label Biography information for Kevin Brennan

445839

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Green Investment Bank: Privatisation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank on the level of investment it will make in the UK green economy.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff West
tabling member printed	Kevin Brennan
uin	23239
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2016 answer text <p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p>The privatisation of the Green Investment Bank will allow the company to increase its investments in the UK green economy. It will be able to raise more capital free from being on the Government balance sheet. It will also be free from State Aid restrictions on the green investments it can make.</p><p /> <p><strong></strong></p><br /> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 22/01/2016 14:29:44 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	1400 label Biography information for Kevin Brennan

445840

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Green Investment Bank: Privatisation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 30 November 2015 to Question 14108, whether the Government has imposed binding conditions in previous privatisations.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff West
tabling member printed	Kevin Brennan
uin	23240
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2016 answer text <p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p>A body such as the Green Investment Bank can only be classified to the private sector if it is not subject to significant government control over its corporate policy. That includes any control Government has over the body in terms of legislation, regulation and its contractual agreements.</p><p /> <p><strong></strong></p><br /> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 22/01/2016 14:32:26 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	1400 label Biography information for Kevin Brennan

445843

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Toys and Games: Safety
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent steps the Government has taken to improve toy safety.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	23052
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2016 answer text <p>Toy safety is fully addressed by the Toy Safety Regulations 2011. Officials are engaged with the associated standards developed and maintained through the British Standards Institute and monitoring of Trading Standards enforcement activities.</p><p><strong></strong></p><br /> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 25/01/2016 15:35:04 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

445844

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Lasers: Regulation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what regulations govern the manufacture, import and sale of laser pens in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Hertsmere
tabling member printed	Oliver Dowden
uin	23018
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2016 answer text <br /><p>All products intended for use by consumers are regulated under the General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) 2005 which implements the EU’s General Product Safety Directive (GPSD). This requires such products to be safe when placed on the market and applies to products where there is no other applicable legislation with more specific provisions on safety. This includes laser pens.</p><br /><p>In addition to the legislation, lasers sold in the UK and EU are covered by the safety standard BS EN 60825-1: 1994 Safety of Laser Products. This specifies those lasers which should be used by trained operators and therefore not suitable for use by the general public. Laser products up to 1 mW are considered safe for general consumer use.</p><br /><p>Trading Standards has the powers under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 to remove laser products from sale to the public, which are unsafe for general consumer use. If anyone is concerned about the safety of a product they should not use it and report it to their local Trading Standards department.</p><br /><p><strong></strong></p> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 25/01/2016 15:33:24 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	4441 label Biography information for Oliver Dowden

445845

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Small Businesses: Billing
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an estimate of the collective cost to small and medium-sized enterprises to recover overdue payments in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Sefton Central
tabling member printed	Bill Esterson
uin	23007
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/01/2016 answer text <p>We know that the collective cost of late payment has been, and remains, a significant burden for small and medium sized businesses. Small businesses spend too much valuable time and resource chasing late payments, which impacts on their ability to invest in growth.</p><br /><p>The Department does not hold the information required to make an estimate of the collective cost to small and medium-sized businesses to recover overdue payments in each of the last five years. As late payment affects so many different types of business in different ways, no single survey gives a full picture of the impact of late payment on small and medium-sized businesses. The three sources that we look to as an indicator of late payment are the SME finance monitor, the regular BACs survey and Experian’s late payment index.</p> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 27/01/2016 17:17:28 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	4061 label Biography information for Bill Esterson

445847

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Public Expenditure
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the cost and benefits of using (a) Green ISAs and Citizen Finance, (b) UK Pension Funds, (c) the European Investment Bank and (d) co-funding with devolved administrations as a means of increasing its capital base.
tabling member constituency	Newport East
tabling member printed	Jessica Morden
uin	23094
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2016 answer text <p>I assume that the Hon. Member’s question is referring to increasing the capital base of the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), rather than increasing the capital base of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.</p><br /><p>The Government’s policy is to move the Green Investment Bank (GIB) into private ownership, minimising the Bank’s use of public funds, and where it will have the freedom to borrow and raise capital without impacting on public sector net debt.</p><br /><p>a) Green ISAs and Citizen Finance</p><p>At present, GIB has insufficient track record for the retail market. Most of its portfolio is in relatively high risk construction projects that will not provide steady returns in the short term. More importantly, GIB’s current focus is growth, for which it will need to make regular cash calls on investors, which would be hard to meet in the public markets. However there is no reason why a privatised GIB could not raise capital through Green ISAs or other forms of citizen finance in the longer term.</p><br /><p>(b) UK Pension Funds</p><p>Large scale institutional investors such as UK pension funds are likely to be interested in acquiring a stake in GIB, as part of the Government’s plans to move GIB into the private sector. GIB has already successfully attracted such investors into its managed fund for investment in Offshore Wind and other investments (e.g. Strathclyde local authority pension fund), many of whom are investing in green projects for the first time.</p><br /><p>(c) The European Investment Bank (EIB)</p><p>The EIB’s focus is on providing debt products, rather than equity investment which is where GIB expects to concentrate. It is unlikely that the EIB would make an investment in GIB itself. However, GIB is already partnering with EIB as a co-investor (such as on the recent Galloper offshore wind investment) and it may continue to do so in future.</p><br /><p>(d) Co-funding with devolved administrations</p><p>The Government’s policy is to move GIB into the private sector. Co-funding GIB with the devolved administrations would simply be another form of public sector funding.</p><br /> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 22/01/2016 14:08:49 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	1548 label Biography information for Jessica Morden

445849

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Green Investment Bank: Privatisation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what options were considered during the decision-making process of privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.
tabling member constituency	Newport East
tabling member printed	Jessica Morden
uin	23222
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2016 answer text <p><strong></strong></p><p>The Government considered a number of options for the Green Investment Bank’s (GIB) future but none were deemed to be as effective in meeting the Government’s objectives as the current proposals of moving GIB into majority private ownership.</p><br /><p>These alternative options were set out in our policy paper of 18 November 2015.</p><p><strong></strong></p> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 22/01/2016 14:23:25 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	1548 label Biography information for Jessica Morden

445850

registered interest
date	19/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Green Investment Bank: Privatisation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the proposed sale of the Green Investment Bank will include all assets of the bank.
tabling member constituency	Newport East
tabling member printed	Jessica Morden
uin	23223
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2016 answer text <p><strong></strong></p><p>The Government has made clear that we intend to sell the Green Investment Bank (GIB) as a going concern. The assets are an inherent part of that company.</p><p><strong></strong></p> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 22/01/2016 14:24:58 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	1548 label Biography information for Jessica Morden