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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many companies have cited in their registration at Companies House their registered office, the address of another business or private individual which they are not authorised to use in each year for which data is available.

Anna Soubry

Companies House has received the following number of complaints that companies have cited as their registered office, the address of another business or private individual that they allegedly are not authorised to use.

Provisions contained in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 will be commenced on 6 April. These will allow the Registrar of Companies to act in the event of a complaint of this nature about a registered office.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 23296, what estimate her Department has made of the amount of (a) public and (b) private sector investment for low-carbon infrastructure and supply chain investment which has been invested in each year for which data is available.

Andrea Leadsom

DECC’s March 2015 Energy Investment Report estimates that total investment in low carbon electricity was £42.1billion between 2010 and 2014. Table 1 below splits this investment out by technology type. Detailed information is not available on how this figure is split between public and private sector investment, though the majority is private sector investment supported by government policies, or how much is invested in the supply chain. In November, the Government renewed its commitment to the transition to a low carbon economy by confirming a continued budget for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The overall budget for the RHI is to rise from £430 million in 2015/16 to £1.15 billion in 2020/21.

Table 1: Estimated investment in low carbon electricity generation capacity for 2010-2014

Source: DECC’s Energy Investment Report March 2015

1 Including large scale onshore wind, but excluding Scottish Islands onshore wind

2 Including dedicated biomass, biomass conversions, bioliquids, energy from waste, anaerobic digestion (including small scale), advanced conversion technologies, landfill and sewage gas (including CHP variations of any of these technologies)

3 Including large and small scale solar PV

4 Including large and small scale hydro technologies

5 Including Scottish Islands onshore wind, small scale onshore wind, and geothermal (including CHP)

6 2010-2014 investment estimate includes the purchase of Horizon Nuclear Power by GE Hitachi, the purchase of the Moorside site by NuGen and expenditures in the period relating to the development of Hinkley Point C

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the proportion of global patents for graphene that is held in the UK.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) estimates that 5% of global graphene patent documents published between 2005 and 2014 have coverage in the UK (in that they are applications to the IPO or the European Patent Office (EPO) with effect in the UK, but were not necessarily filed by UK applicants).

In the same period, UK applicants were responsible for filing 1% of published global graphene patent applications worldwide.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many UK Trade and Industry (UKTI) staff have direct experience of working in private sector exporting companies before taking up their employment at UKTI.

Anna Soubry

UK Trade & Investment does not hold information on staff with direct experience of working in private sector exporting companies. I can however confirm that a large number of its staff have been recruited from the private sector.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to develop a standardised methodology for measuring SME spending by government departments which can be used as a baseline over the next five years.

Matthew Hancock

We have developed our methodology over time, starting in 2010 when there was no reliable estimate for spend with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We now have much better data than before 2010 and we are continuing to improve our understanding of spend. The Government exceeded its target of 25% of central government procurement spend going to small and medium businesses by 2015, achieving over £12 billion (27.1%) of spend with SMEs by the end of the last Parliament.

The Government standardised its methodology for collecting data on direct spend with SMEs in 2011-12; data on direct spend published since that point is comparable. Data on indirect spend for 2013-14 and 2014-15 is also comparable. This is an area of continuous improvement and we intend to standardise our methodology again during 2016-17.