Every parliamentary written question tabled by Claire Coutinho this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 21–40 of 66 · Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
With reference to the oral answer by the Prime Minister of 3 December 2025, Official Report, column 980, what the evidence basis is for the statement that the energy bills package announced in the Budget will cut energy bills for every family by £150.
The recent Budget acts to take an average £150 of costs off household energy bills from April 2026. As a result of this action, people can expect to see a significant saving on their bills.
How many (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants from his Department will attend the COP30 summit in Belem in November 2025; and whether these figures apply to (i) his Department and (ii) other departments.
The full, confirmed list of delegates who attend COP is published by the UNFCCC each year, after COP has concluded. The UK delegation to COP30 will be significantly smaller than the delegation to COP29 in Baku last year. The UK delegation includes Ministers and negotiators working together to represent the British people on the world stage fighting for investment, jobs, energy security, and action on the climate crisis.
Pursuant to the Answer on 5 November 2025 to Question 86737 on Energy: Prices, for what reason his intention to cut energy bills by £300 by 2030 was not included in his Department's publication entitled Carbon budget and growth delivery plan, published on 29 October 2025.
The Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan sets out how the UK will continue to reduce emissions in a way that lowers bills and secures good jobs, in line with the landmark 2008 Climate Change Act. In this document and those published alongside it, the government reconfirmed the commitments made in the Clean Power Action Plan to make Britain a clean energy superpower, and to get the UK off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices and onto clean, homegrown power that we control. Our plan for clean power by 2030 will bring down wholesale prices and reduce energy bill volatility.
Whether it remains his policy to cut energy bills by £300 by 2030.
It remains our intention to cut energy bills by up to £300 by 2030. The Government believes that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is the best way to break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets and protect billpayers permanently. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030. This, combined with our Warm Homes Plan to upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run is how we will drive down energy bills and make cold homes a thing of the past. A clean power system will also help protect consumers from global gas prices and fluctuations which drove increases of over £1,300 in the electricity price cap for a typical household during winter 22/23.
How many heat pump installations have been directly funded by his Department outside the Boiler Upgrade Scheme since July 2024.
Outside of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, between July 2024 and March 2025 inclusive, there have been 14,218 heat pumps installed under government schemes, including 11,035 under the Energy Company Obligation, 2,097 under the Home Upgrade Grant, 1,086 under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. The statistics are available to access on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/heat-pump-deployment-statistics). The ECO is not a government-funded grant scheme, but instead a requirement on larger energy supplier to deliver energy efficiency and heating measures to low-income households. Heat pumps are eligible for support under the Warm Homes: Local Grant and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund. The schemes started delivery in April 2025 and therefore installation figures are not yet available.
What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Gas Shippers Obligation on energy bills.
The Department consulted on the design of the Gas Shipper Obligation (GSO) earlier this year and published an analytical annex focusing on its impact on gas users, based on Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 estimated costs. The affordability of energy bills remains a key priority for the government and the design of the GSO will consider energy bill affordability, value for money, and fairness.
What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the target for 10GW of hydrogen production capacity on energy bills by 2030.
The Government believes that the only way to guarantee our energy security and protect billpayers permanently is to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy. Low carbon hydrogen is a key option for decarbonising hard to electrify industrial processes, heavy transport, and deliver clean power. Government support is a temporary bridge to unlock private investment and reduce costs, with all supported projects having to deliver value for money. As production scales and costs fall, future projects will need less support. Our Hydrogen Strategy, which we intend to publish this Autumn, will set out more on expected hydrogen supply and demand.
What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of aligning with the EU Emissions Trading System on the price of carbon in the UK.
The price of carbon allowances in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme is set by the market. Linking the UK and EU ETSs is expected to create a larger, more stable market, which will lower the costs of decarbonisation for UK businesses. Many industry stakeholders, including Make UK, UK steel, and Energy UK, have voiced support for linking the two schemes, citing that linkage would align carbon prices and support business investment and certainty, by creating a larger and more liquid carbon market.
If he will make an estimate of (a) the cost to the public purse and (b) the potential impact on energy bills of Hydrogen Allocation Round 2.
In April 2025, the Government announced a shortlist of 27 projects across the UK to progress to the next stage of the Second Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2) process. Value for money and the affordability of energy bills will be central to decisions regarding capacity allocation and contract award. We expect final decisions on successful projects to be made in early 2026.
What the total cost of procuring frequency control services was in each month since January 2022.
The data requested is a matter of public record and is published by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) here under the headings “MBSS” and “MBSS Archive”.
When he plans to publish his Department's hydrogen to power business model.
In December 2024, the Government committed to implementing a Hydrogen to Power Business Model (H2PBM) to de-risk Hydrogen to Power investment by mitigating deployment barriers.Later this year, we will publish a H2PBM market engagement exercise outlining further design details for the H2PBM, including our minded to positions on eligibility and assessment criteria and proposed next steps for allocating support through the business model.
Pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2025 to Question 43723 on Carbon Emissions: Trees, whether it is standard practice for officials in his Department to receive time-limited access to documents when negotiating subsidy arrangements.
DESNZ officials were granted access by Drax to review the KPMG reports in January 2025. These reports were internal fact-finding documents, commissioned by Drax under legal privilege to review their biomass supply chain against the sustainability requirements of existing arrangements. Drax granted DESNZ access to these internal documents which enabled Government to better understand their contents and the conclusions of Ofgem’s investigation, which we support.
For what reason his Department has not conducted an impact assessment of its proposed extension of the Drax Power Station subsidy arrangements.
We are conducting a rigorous economic assessment of the proposed support for Drax, including detailed value for money analysis. Our current analysis shows that the new arrangement will halve the level of consumer subsidy compared to existing arrangements. This is equivalent to a saving of nearly £6 per household in average annual bills. When compared to the cost of securing alternative dispatchable capacity for this timeframe, the arrangement with Drax will save consumers £170m a year.
Pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2025 to Question 43723 on Carbon Emissions: Trees, if he will ask Drax Group plc to share the interim KPMG report of December 2022 with Members of Parliament.
The KPMG reports were commissioned by Drax as a confidential internal fact-finding exercise and are the property of Drax. The government does not hold them. It is for Drax to decide whether they wish to release them to Parliament or the public. Ofgem has already published significant details as to how these reports were considered as part of their investigation.
If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the price per megawatt hour of the subsidies received by the Drax Power Station by 13% on his plans to reduce household energy bills by up to £300.
The strike price for the proposed low carbon dispatchable CfD with Drax is £113 MWh (2012 prices) compared to £100 MWh (2012 prices) currently. This modest increase reflects that Drax’s fixed operating costs will be spread over far fewer units of generation. However, the proposed CfD arrangement caps the volume of supported generation to an annual load factor of 27%. Our analysis shows this would halve overall subsidy payments relative to current arrangements, resulting in a decrease of around £6 on the average household bill. Further, this arrangement incentivises dispatchable biomass generation only when the system needs it, ensuring consumers can benefit from cheaper wind and solar power at other times.
If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the CO2 released annually by Drax Power Station on the ability of the UK to meet the emissions reduction targets included in the Climate Change Committee's Carbon Budgets.
CO2 emissions from the combustion of biomass at Drax Power Station are not included in the assessment of emissions in Carbon Budgets. This is consistent with international guidelines established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which require CO2 emissions from the combustion of biomass to be accounted for in the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector of the country in which the biomass was harvested, rather than at the point of release to the atmosphere.
Pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2025 to Question 43723 on Carbon Emissions: Trees, if he will publish minutes of meetings with officials where the KPMG report was discussed.
We have determined that it would not be in the public interest to release further information on this issue in this instance. Protecting commercially sensitive information facilitates the frank exchange of information between the private sector and government, and ensures ministers and civil servants can have honest, unfiltered discussions during the policy-making process.
Pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2025 to Question 43723 on Carbon Emissions: Trees, if he will publish emails where the KPMG report was discussed.
We have determined that it would not be in the public interest to release further information on this issue in this instance. Protecting commercially sensitive information facilitates the frank exchange of information between the private sector and government, and ensures ministers and civil servants can have honest, unfiltered discussions during the policy-making process.
Pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2025 to Question 47816 on Renewable Energy: Electricity Generation, what the annual cost to consumers of the Offtaker of Last Resort scheme has been since 2015.
Since its launch there have been no applications to the OLR scheme and no Backstop PPAs have been entered into. The only costs related to the scheme are the administrative costs incurred by Ofgem. The cost of the scheme for 2024/25 was £26,902. Details of the activities associated with these costs can be accessed here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/offtaker-last-resort-olr-annual-report-april-2023-march-2024
Whether the Offtaker of Last Resort scheme has been implemented.
The Scheme was introduced on 1 October 2015 and is intended as a last resort to help renewable generators who have an Investment Contract or Contracts for Difference (CFD) contract, who cannot get a PPA through the usual commercial means. Ofgem administer the Offtaker of Last Resort and publish an annual report on the scheme’s operation.