Form

Your questions answered

Updated 1 June 2021

Below are the questions received for the Offshore Wind Investment Programme. All commercially sensitive information has been removed.

3 March 2021

Question: Can you confirm that companies / ports based in Northern Ireland are eligible to bid for these funds?

Answer: Applications from Northern Ireland are eligible for the fund, subject to meeting eligibility criteria.

Question: In terms of the criteria for the project to be carried out in a ‘disadvantaged or deprived region of the UK’, how do we know which areas are eligible?

Answer: For the purposes of this Offshore Wind Investment Programme the definition of a disadvantaged or deprived region shall be those areas listed as ‘assisted’ on the UK assisted areas map or other areas notified as such from time to time. If your site is not in one of these areas, then it is not eligible for the scheme.

Question: The facility would likely have between 120-140 direct employees based on shift patterns, but this could be increased if run on straight hour basis, and this hasn’t been finalised yet. The criteria is set at 250, is there any discretion on this point if all other criteria were met?

Answer: There is no discretion on any of the eligibility criteria and it is important you ensure your project meets all of them. As a result, your site must create or safeguard a minimum of 250 direct full time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

Question: Although the owner of our company is leading the project, we anticipate that a new business would be created.  Would this pose an issue for an application as accompanying documentation requires financial statements and so on to be submitted?

Answer: Applicants must be a UK registered business or (where the applicant is a non-UK registered company) set up an active UK registered business in order to undertake the project. Successful applicants must provide details of a UK registered company before any funding will be issued with a ‘letter in principle’, following an initial assurance process.

Where an applicant has a parent company, BEIS will require a parent company guarantee from the applicant’s ultimate parent company (as determined by BEIS) as against commitments and default against the Grant Funding Agreement. BEIS will also review the financial viability of the relevant parent company and run checks on that parent company akin to those above. Failure to provide such a guarantee or information in respect of a relevant parent company may result in an applicant not being made an offer of grant funding.

Question: We are working on the basis that a legal opinion from an external lawyer on compliance with subsidy control rules is required, please can you clarify if this is correct as page 16 of the guidance document states you can use also an internal lawyer?

Answer: Page 16 of the guidance document is correct; we are content to accept a subsidy control opinion from an internal lawyer but please note we may request a legal opinion from an external lawyer if we do not consider the internal assessment is sufficient.

Question: For the legal opinion about subsidy control rule is there a specific document with the standards or controls so that an external lawyer can give an opinion on whether our project complies with them? Is there any template? Is it mandatory at this stage of the process for an opinion to be submitted?

Answer: We recommend reviewing the GOV.UK guidance for subsidy control. We expect an internal legal adviser to provide a legal opinion at this stage. There is no specific template to submit information. Although we would expect any response to address the core principles of subsidy control (please see our note on responses to Question A6 of the guidance document). Please note we have updated the guidance to state we will accept an internal legal assessment but may upon request ask applicants to provide an external assessment should we consider the internal assessment is not sufficient.

Q: We would like your early advice on whether we should apply to this scheme or if a more suitable seed funding scheme is more appropriate?

Answer: We cannot advise whether you should apply for the scheme and would recommend that you ensure you have reviewed the guidance fully before applying, in particular the eligibility criteria – it is mandatory that you meet all of these criteria completely to be eligible for the scheme.

Question: What information is required for the procurement strategy? Would our strategy to acquire raw material and supplies for the project be appropriate?

Answer: Yes, this would be an appropriate approach. 

Question: Are ‘Job Safeguarded’ jobs already created / currently in existence by existing company?

Answer: That is correct.

Question: The first window would be 7 March, but a lot of information is required. Is there any critical information we should not miss in this first window to be eligible?

Answer: We expect applications to be fully completed when submitted. At this stage (and throughout the process set out below) BEIS may, at its sole discretion contact applicants in order to clarify any applications (or parts thereof) which are unclear, contain genuine mistakes, gaps, omissions or in relation to responses to ambiguous questions. However, BEIS is not under any obligation to do this. Please review Section 4, Stage 1: Application of the guidance to see this process outlined in further detail.

Question: What is the definition of indirect labour?

Answer: There is a definition for indirect jobs in Application Form 2 (excel spreadsheet).

Question: Unskilled labour / training. Is this the number of employees who will receive specific training associated with production or improvements, eliminating general training such as safety?

Answer: We are looking for training which will increase the workers productivity and where they will receive a higher wage post training.

Question: In Part 2 – Funding and Economic Impacts Templates: The funding type RGF is one of the drop down options. Should this be OWMIS (Project Expenditure worksheet, column D drop downs).

Answer: Correct this has been changed to OWMIS and updated in the online form when you download Part 2 – Funding and Economic Impacts Templates.

Question: In Part 2 – Funding and Economic Impacts Templates: The currency in the templates are in € EUROS, can we change this to £GBP?

Answer: This has been updated to £GBP.

Question: In Part 2 – Funding and Economic Impacts Templates: Wider Benefits, is this a critical aspect of the application and can you provide guidance on how best to evaluate the wider impacts?

Answer: Applicants are given an opportunity to outline any wider (non-employment or R&D) costs or benefits associated with the project that arise as a result of the project receiving public funding. Application form 2 provides some examples of wider impacts. Where it is not possible to monetise the impact of the wider impacts, it will be relevant to provide a narrative with supporting evidence. The assessment of the bid will look at the wider impact as part of an overall judgement of monetised and non-monetised impacts as well as strategic fit, risks and quality of the evidence provided.

Question: What can be utilised as evidence of indirect jobs?

Examples of evidence for indirect jobs could include impact studies or headcount studies by the applicant to understand their own impact on indirect jobs or names of specific companies in the applicant’s supply chain.

Where applicants have not provided sufficient evidence for the indirect jobs provided in application form 2, the assessment will apply an indirect jobs multiplier where it is considered appropriate.