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1131900

	registered interest
	date	12/06/2019
	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	Carbon Capture and Storage
	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 17 April (HL15078), when they will publish the details of the projects that have been successful as part of the Carbon Capture and Utilisation Demonstration Programme and the Call for Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage Innovation.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL16318
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2019 answer text <p>We will be announcing the details of the successful projects in due course.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 19/06/2019 16:41:06 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

792454

	registered interest
	date	20/11/2017
	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	Minimum Wage
	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 13 November (HL3127), what preparations they have made to manage any increase in referrals, investigations and prosecutions for national minimum wage non-compliance which may result from their activity to raise awareness and improve compliance with the legislation.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL3395
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2017 answer text <p>We are committed to enforcing the rights of workers. We have therefore increased HMRC’s enforcement budget to a record level of £25.3 million for 2017-2018, up from £13 million in 2015/16.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 23/11/2017 13:16:10 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1109886

	registered interest
	date	04/04/2019
	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	Greenhouse Gas Emissions
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the recommendation in the report by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering Greenhouse gas removal, published in September 2018, to incentivise demonstrators and early stage deployment to enable development of greenhouse gas removal methods.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL15078
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/04/2019 answer text <p>We agree with the need for further research, development and demonstration of early-stage greenhouse gas removal methods, as well as the need to look how best to incentivise responsible deployment. The Department is addressing these recommendations by conducting a more detailed study of different policy options for incentivising removals, and through constructive discussions with the UK Research &amp; Innovation (UKRI) about the possibility of new research funding for demonstrators in the near future.</p><p>BEIS is co-funding an £8.6 million GGR research programme with UK Research &amp; Innovation (UKRI) which will continue until 2021. In addition, projects for some GGR approaches are in scope for both our £20 million Carbon Capture and Utilisation Demonstration (CCUD) Programme and £24 million Call for Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) Innovation. The details of these successful CCUS and CCUD projects will be announced in due course.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 17/04/2019 16:02:24 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

890731

	registered interest
	date	24/04/2018
	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	Directors: Pay
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on corporate governance of annual bonus award arrangements such as Carillion’s, which in 2016 gave greater weighting to the Chief Financial Officer’s performance for technology (8 per cent) and risk management (8 per cent) than for net debt (6 per cent) and pre-tax profit (6 per cent).
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL7250
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/05/2018 answer text <p>Under the Large and Medium-Sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, as amended in 2013, annual bonus awards may only be paid within the terms of a remuneration policy approved by shareholders through a binding vote. The remuneration policy must state how any annual bonus targets support the short and long-term strategic objectives of the company. Additionally, the UK Corporate Governance Code principles state that directors’ remuneration should be designed to promote the long-term success of the company.</p><p> </p><p>Within this regulatory framework, it is a company’s shareholders who are responsible for scrutinising and, where necessary, challenging individual bonus and other remuneration arrangements for its directors, including the weighting of different performance measures.</p><p>The Government’s current Insolvency and Corporate Governance consultation launched on 20 March 2018 has invited views, among other things, on what more could be done to promote more engaged shareholder stewardship of companies which could include more active monitoring of risk and ensuring that executive remuneration policies align the interests of directors with the interests of the company.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 03/05/2018 16:31:29 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

890730

	registered interest
	date	24/04/2018
	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	Directors: Pay
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of corporate governance regulations covering (1) annual bonus awards, (2) remuneration committees, and (3) companies employed to advise remuneration committees.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL7249
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/05/2018 answer text <p>UK quoted companies are currently subject to a range of regulatory requirements and UK Corporate Governance Code principles and provisions covering executive remuneration, including in respect of annual bonus awards, the role of remuneration committees, and remuneration advisers.</p><p> </p><p>Under the Large and Medium-Sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, as amended in 2013, annual bonus awards may only be paid within the terms of a remuneration policy approved by shareholders through a binding vote. The amount of any annual bonus, and details of the extent to which corresponding performance targets have been met, must be disclosed in the annual directors’ remuneration report which is subject to an advisory shareholder vote.</p><p> </p><p>The Regulations also require that the annual directors’ remuneration report provide details of any person or persons who have advised the remuneration committee, including the nature of that advice and the fees paid for it, and whether and how the remuneration committee has satisfied itself that the advice received was objective and independent.</p><p> </p><p>The UK Corporate Governance Code has provisions on remuneration committees’ responsibilities and composition, including having at least three, or in the case of smaller companies two, independent non-executive directors and to disclose the committee’s terms of reference and the authority delegated to it by the board.</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s response to the Corporate Governance Reform green paper consultation, published on 29 August 2017, announced a number of measures to enhance transparency and accountability in executive pay. These include: a new statutory requirement on UK quoted companies to disclose and explain annually the ratio of their CEO’s total annual remuneration, including any annual bonus, to the average of their UK employees’ remuneration; and new responsibilities for remuneration committees in a revised UK Corporate Governance Code (subject to consultation), to engage with the workforce and to explain how executive pay aligns with wider pay and performance.</p><p> </p><p>These new measures will further strengthen the UK’s executive remuneration framework, in particular by giving shareholders and other interested parties more information with which to assess whether executive pay, including annual bonuses, is justified by performance and consistent with pay and reward in the rest of the company.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 03/05/2018 15:40:08 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1131473

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	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	Greenhouse Gas Emissions
	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 16 April (HL15075), what proportion of their £8.6 million Greenhouse Gas Removal research programme with UK Research and Innovation is targeted at the removal of greenhouses gasses other than carbon dioxide.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL16267
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>This information is publicly available on the Natural Environment Research Council website, from which the full list of projects funded by the Greenhouse Gas Removal research programme is provided in the attached document. One of the 13 projects is targeted at gasses other than carbon dioxide, specifically on new methodologies for removal of methane from the atmosphere. This project is receiving £223,782 in funding, or 3% of the programme total.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 25/06/2019 13:05:01 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley attachment 1 file name GGR programme project list.pdf title Projects funded by the GGR research programme
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

926475

	registered interest
	date	18/06/2018
	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	Companies
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government who is responsible for evaluating the role and effectiveness of (1) the Corporate Governance Code, (2) company directors, (3) shareholders, (4) fund managers, and (5) remuneration advisers to Boards of Directors.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL8729
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2018 answer text <p>These matters are addressed through a mixture of legislation, regulation, codes, investor scrutiny and market activity.</p><p> </p><p>The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is responsible for the UK Corporate Governance Code, the effectiveness of which is regularly reviewed. A revised Code will be published soon, following a public consultation which included proposals to address important issues such as workforce engagement and improving board effectiveness.</p><p> </p><p>Company directors must comply with the directors’ duties set out in the Companies Act 2006. The Insolvency Service has powers to prosecute directors for breaches of these duties. The Government keeps directors’ duties under review and has recently tabled draft secondary legislation (The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018) that will, if approved by Parliament, place a new requirement on companies to report annually how their directors are meeting their duty under Section 172 of the Companies Act to have regard to employee and certain other interests.</p><p>In addition, shareholders vote annually on the appointment or re-appointment of directors and therefore have powers to vote directors off the board where they are dissatisfied with their performance. Under the current UK Corporate Governance Code, a board should also undertake a formal and rigorous annual evaluation of its own performance including the performance of individual directors. In the case of FTSE 350 companies, there should be an externally facilitated evaluation at least every three years with the external facilitator identified for shareholders in the annual report, and with the chairman acting on the findings.</p><p> </p><p>Shareholders, where they are regulated, and fund managers must comply with the terms of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which is enforced by the Financial Conduct Authority. Institutional investors also have fiduciary duties to their clients and must comply with the terms of their investment mandate. Additionally, the UK Stewardship Code sets out best practice for institutional investors in terms of their stewardship responsibilities. The FRC will be consulting on a revised Code later this year.</p><p> </p><p>It is the responsibility of a company’s board of directors to assess the effectiveness of remuneration advisers it appoints and a company has a statutory obligation (under Schedule 8 of the Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, as amended in 2013) to disclose certain details in respect of remuneration advisers’ services, including whether and how the remuneration committee has satisfied itself that the advice received was objective and independent. Remuneration policies and reports are additionally subject to shareholder votes.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 02/07/2018 12:38:30 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1131474

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	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	Greenhouse Gas Emissions
	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 17 April (HL15078), when they expect to complete, and publish, their study of different options for incentivising Greenhouse Gas Removal technologies.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL16268
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2019 answer text <p>The study on options for incentivising Greenhouse Gas Removal technologies is near completion and we aim to publish it in due course.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 17/06/2019 12:31:05 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1131902

	registered interest
	date	12/06/2019
	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	Climate Change
	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 17 April (HL15077), why they do not have any plans to increase global cooperation and governance of research on, and the use of, solar radiation management technologies; and what assessment, if any, they have made of the risk of that lack of plans leading to unilateral deployment without international consent
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL16320
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2019 answer text <p>The priority of the UK Government is to tackle the root cause of climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities and adapting to those impacts that are unavoidable. We are aware of independent existing efforts to increase cooperation and governance of research into solar radiation management technologies, such as the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative and the ‘Oxford Principles’ for the governance of geoengineering. We have not formally assessed the risk that lack of plans may lead to unilateral deployment without international consent.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 26/06/2019 12:03:46 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

887320

	registered interest
	date	19/04/2018
	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	Insolvency
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their plans to improve the availability of working capital to businesses in financial distress; and what assessment have they made of debtor-in-possession financing models such as those available in the United States.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL7117
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/05/2018 answer text <p>The directors and managers of businesses are responsible for ensuring the availability of working capital, including at times of financial distress. A prudent board of directors will ensure that the balance sheet is strong enough to withstand a deterioration in trading conditions. Other options may include reducing or suspending the payment of dividends, raising fresh equity, postponing planned capital expenditure and negotiating an increase in borrowing facilities.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has published its review of the Corporate Insolvency Framework consultation, which contained a package of proposals to improve the rescue opportunities for financially-distressed companies drawing on some of the features of the United States’ debtor-in-possession regime. The Government will set out the way forward for the proposals in its response later this year.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 03/05/2018 16:55:41 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn