Written questions by Denyer.

Whether he has had discussions with the Foreign Secretary about the potential implications for his Department’s policies of reports the Rosebank oil field’s minority owner is owned by a firm operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State has regular discussions with Ministerial Colleagues on a number of issues.

If he will make it his policy to retain the Acoustic Fish Deterrent aspect of the Development Consent Order to the Hinkley Point C (Nuclear Generating Station) Order 2013.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) Minister cannot enter into a discussion on this area. This will be a quasi-judicial decision to be taken by a DESNZ Minister under the Planning Act 2008, based only on the facts, evidence and arguments made in the case as presented to us once it has been through the formal planning process.

Pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2024 to Question 7946 on Sizewell C Power Station: Compensation, what (a) output in MWh his Department has assumed for Hinkley Point C and (b) discounting rate has been applied for sharing First-of-a-Kind costs with Hinkley Point C over the first 35 years of its lifetime; and whether the cost of the discounting rate is included in expenditure eligible for a Sizewell C Regulated Asset Base.

EDF’s assumed maximum capacity of HPC is 3.2GW, overlaid with assumptions for planned and unplanned outages. There isn’t a specific discounting rate applied to the First-of-a-Kind cost sharing. Instead, the payment for this cost sharing is included in the forecast expenditure eligible for the SZC RAB, along with other eligible project costs; and the consumer costs, driven by the RAB, are discounted at the applicable Social Discount Rate used in the Government’s Value for Money assessment of the SZC project.

With reference to the first bullet point on page 23 of EDF Energy Holdings Limited Annual Report and Financial Statements 31 December 2023, what estimate he has made of the amount of compensation that will be paid from Sizewell C to Hinkley Point C; and how that cost will be allocated between (a) private investors, (b) the UK Government and (c) electricity consumers.

Under the terms of a contractual agreement between HPC and SZC, which was agreed at the time of the Final Investment Decision on HPC, a payment is payable from SZC to HPC if SZC takes a positive FID. This payment reflects benefits for SZC, including the significant learning and ‘avoided First-of-a-Kind’ costs that SZC will gain from being a ‘second-of-a-kind’ replica of HPC. The payment would be financed by the investors in SZC and would be added to the cost base of SZC, and is therefore included in the Government’s Value for Money assessment of the SZC project. The value of the payment to HPC is intended to be broadly equal to £3/MWh in Net Present Value terms, reflecting the size of the reduction in the strike price at HPC if a positive FID on SZC is taken. Taking into account the lower HPC strike price, the overall effect of the payment on GB electricity consumers would be broadly neutral.

With reference to the contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero in the debate on COP29: UK Priorities on Tuesday 10 September 2024, Official Report, Col 232WH, what the membership is of the Local Net Zero Forum; when the next meeting will take place; and what topics will be on the agenda.

The Government is committed to strong collaboration with local government on net zero, as demonstrated by having recently signed up to CHAMP - the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships for Climate Action.The previous government ran the Local Net Zero Forum of which terms of reference, membership and meeting minutes can be found on the Local Net Zero Forum gov.uk page. The Government is currently reviewing the approach and will set out plans in due course.