Lord Foster of Bath

Smart Meter Enabled Thermal Efficiency Ratings (SMETERs) can provide valuable additional insight on the thermal performance of homes in practice with potential to play an important role in delivering warmer homes more affordably. Work is underway to establish a quality assurance system to support use of SMETERs from end-2026, and we are exploring further applications under the Warm Homes Plan.

In the Home Energy Model: Energy Performance Certificates consultation, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-energy-model-energy-performance-certificates, we sought views on an option for recording SMETER Heat Transfer Coefficients as supplementary information alongside EPC ratings. We are reviewing responses and will respond in due course.

Smart Meter Enabled Thermal Efficiency Ratings (SMETERs) can provide valuable additional insight on the thermal performance of homes in practice with potential to play an important role in delivering warmer homes more affordably. Work is underway to establish a quality assurance system to support use of SMETERs from end-2026, and we are exploring further applications under the Warm Homes Plan.

In the Home Energy Model: Energy Performance Certificates consultation, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-energy-model-energy-performance-certificates, we sought views on an option for recording SMETER Heat Transfer Coefficients as supplementary information alongside EPC ratings. We are reviewing responses and will respond in due course.

U‑values can be measured on-site or taken from defaults. Using measured U‑values reduces reliance on assumptions and can provide a more accurate view of real building performance. For new buildings, the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and the Home Energy Model (HEM) require U‑values to be provided.

For existing buildings, Reduced Data SAP does not require measured values because in‑situ data is harder to obtain, though defaults can be overridden where verified evidence is available to assessors. Government is consulting on HEM for existing buildings, including exploring the optional use of additional verified, tested U‑value evidence to improve assessment accuracy.

The Government is consulting on proposals for HEM for existing buildings in the HEM:EPC consultation which is open until 18 March. This includes exploring the optional use of additional verified in-situ measured evidence which can be input where available to assessors, which can improve assessment accuracy.

As part of the development of the Warm Homes Plan, the Department has engaged with a broad range of stakeholders through a variety of different fora to ensure a wide range of views were considered.

On 8 December 2025 Minister McCluskey met with the Chief Executive of the Sustainable Energy Association Dave Sowden to listen to their proposals for decarbonising homes. The Department has also corresponded with a number of other industry groups, academics, think-tanks and other representatives, including the UK Green Building Council. These proposals have been considered as part of the policy development process.

The recently published Warm Homes Plan is the biggest investment in home upgrades ever, with £15 billion of investment to cut energy bills, bring households out of fuel poverty, increase our energy security and make our homes warmer and more efficient.

The Government publishes monthly delivery data on Gov.UK. The information sought regarding delivery of the ECO4 scheme can be found in the attached pdf and at

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/household-energy-efficiency-national-statistics.

To the end of September 2025 there were around 101,500 meaures installed in 49,400 households under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. A summary of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund statistic can be found in the below table:

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund:

More information is available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/social-housing-decarbonisation-fund-statistics-november-2025/summary-of-the-social-housing-decarbonisation-fund-statistics-november-2025.

Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery (LAD) and Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) was released in November 2025 and can be found in the second attached file. Delivery under the current Warm Homes: Local Grant and Social Housing Fund is currently ongoing and in progress.

Over this parliament the government plans to upgrade up to 5 million homes and cut energy bills for good.

We will deliver an updated plan that sets out the policy package out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 for all sectors of the economy by October 2025. This will outline the policies and proposals needed to deliver Carbon Budgets 4-6 and our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) on a pathway to net zero, including for onshore wind, offshore wind and solar power generation, and describing Great British Energy’s potential role in supporting these sectors.

Sizewell C was granted development consent following the Planning Inspectorate’s examination of Sizewell C’s Development Consent Order (DCO) application and all works are fully in line with DCO permissions.

Sizewell C report that the project has carried out advanced planting of 4,000 more trees than it has removed, and when the power station is complete, 42 hectares of woodland will have been created, amounting to between 50,000 and 100,000 trees and shrubs, plus additional hedgerows. Sizewell C has also created three nature reserves around the site – and three further nature reserves are being created locally to further mitigate for any land take.

Sizewell C was granted development consent following the Planning Inspectorate’s examination of Sizewell C’s Development Consent Order (DCO) application and all works are fully in line with DCO permissions.

Sizewell C report that the project has carried out advanced planting of 4,000 more trees than it has removed, and when the power station is complete, 42 hectares of woodland will have been created, amounting to between 50,000 and 100,000 trees and shrubs, plus additional hedgerows. Sizewell C has also created three nature reserves around the site – and three further nature reserves are being created locally to further mitigate for any land take.

We will publish estimates of the emissions savings from future and developing policies by October 2025. These will cover all sectors of the economy out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037.

According to the National Energy System Operator's independent analysis, plans to achieve Clean Power by 2030 will reduce emissions by over 31MtCO2 per year by 2030, compared to 2023 levels. It is not possible to disaggregate emissions savings by technology or policy as their impacts are interconnected. As such, figures tend to cover the power sector as a whole, in line with the reporting approach taken by the Climate Change Committee.

Source: https://www.neso.energy/document/346806/download

In December 2020, the UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC) presented a report to the Secretary of State entitled “The Sixth Carbon Budget: The UK’s Path to Net Zero.” This report, a statutory obligation under Section 34 of the Climate Change Act, included recommendations for the UK’s Sixth Carbon Budget, set to run from 2033 to 2037. In the report, the CCC noted that “it is for the Government to decide whether the currently legislated budgets [the fourth and fifth, covering 2023-2027 and 2028-32] should be amended to bring them in line with the Net Zero 2050 target, however the Committee does not consider it necessary to change the budget level in law – the focus should be on developing policy to deliver the new Sixth Carbon Budget and the UK’s NDC for 2030.” We will deliver an updated plan that sets out the policy package out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 for all the sectors in due course.

The UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) has no statutory responsibilities in relation to the NDC. However, to benefit from its independent expertise, the Secretary of State wrote to the CCC to request guidance on the UK’s 2035 nationally determined contribution (NDC). The CCC's guidance was published in October 2024 and included the recommendation that the UK’s NDC commit to a reduction in territorial greenhouse emissions of 81% from 1990 to 2035. The CCC advised that this target would be consistent with the emissions reductions required to meet the UK’s legally binding Sixth Carbon Budget (2033-2037). This guidance did not include any advice on making the 2035 NDC binding in law.

The UK’s 2030 nationally determined contribution - to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68% on 1990 levels – represents an increase in ambition on the UK’s fifth carbon budget, which covers the period 2028-2032. The UK will need to overachieve on the fifth carbon budget to meet the 2030 NDC and stay on track for the sixth carbon budget. In its advice to Government on the setting of the UK’s sixth carbon budget, the Climate Change Committee advised that it did not consider it necessary for Government to reset existing targets, and instead advised that once the 2030 NDC and sixth carbon budget were set on the path to net zero, that these would provide a clear target for UK emissions reductions.

The UK’s 2030 NDC target – to reduce economy wide greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68% on 1990 levels – is a fair and ambitious contribution to global action on climate change, in line with the Paris Agreement temperature goal, and remains in place.

The Government will deliver an updated Carbon Budget Delivery that sets out the policy package out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 for all the sectors, in due course. This will outline the policies and proposals needed to deliver carbon budgets 4-6 on a pathway to net zero.

Looking ahead, we will set Carbon Budget 7 by June 2026, in line with our statutory duties. This will set out the next phase of our pathway to net zero and policies to further decarbonise the UK economy.

The Government will deliver an updated Carbon Budget Delivery that sets out the policy package out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 for all the sectors, in due course. This will outline the policies and proposals needed to deliver carbon budgets 4-6 on a pathway to net zero.

Looking ahead, we will set Carbon Budget 7 by June 2026, in line with our statutory duties. This will set out the next phase of our pathway to net zero and policies to further decarbonise the UK economy.

The figures below show the Government’s latest published projections for the UK’s territorial emissions in 2030 in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), first excluding and then including emissions from International Aviation and Shipping (IAS). These estimates do not take account of future policies or those currently under development, which the Government expects will lead to lower emissions than those reported below.

2030

Terrestrial emissions excluding IAS 327

Terrestrial emissions including IAS 371

The Government publishes estimates of embedded emissions from imported goods in ‘UK and England's carbon footprint to 2021’. However, projections of these emissions are not available.

The UK’s 2030 nationally determined contribution - to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68% on 1990s levels – is a fair and ambitious contribution to global action on climate change and is in line with the Paris agreement temperature goal. The 2030 NDC was aligned with the advice of the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) and built on the foundations of well-established UK analysis and policy development for domestic climate change mitigation. We do not consider it necessary to implement new legislation to bring the UK's 2030 NDC into domestic law because of its alignment with the existing, legally-binding carbon budgets framework.

The UK’s 2030 and 2035 nationally determined contributions are fair and ambitious contributions to global action on climate change, in line with the Paris Agreement temperature goal. NDCs are international communications of ambition required to be communicated under the Paris Agreement, a treaty under international law. Alongside our international commitments, the UK was the first country to introduce a legally binding, long-term emissions reduction target under the Climate Change Act 2008. This framework includes the UK’s legislated 2050 net zero target, which the Climate Change Committee has confirmed is consistent with the trajectories of the UK’s 2030 and 2035 NDCs.

The fifth carbon budget was set in 2016, when the UK’s legal target was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% on 1990 levels. The Climate Change Act 2008 was amended in 2019 to strengthen the 2050 target to net zero. The UK's 2030 nationally determined contribution to reduce emissions by at least 68% on 1990 levels was set in 2020 to align with the trajectory to achieve net zero by 2050.

The Government will publish a report setting out its plan to meet carbon budgets in due course. This will set out the policies and proposals needed to meet Carbon Budgets 4-6 and the 2030 and 2035 NDC targets.

The Government's position is consistent with evidence from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, which state that every increment of warming increases the impacts and risks of climate change, including the likelihood of triggering climate tipping points, especially above 1.5 degrees Celsius. We are already seeing the impacts of climate change globally and domestically and further warming will worsen this. This is why the Government committed to an ambitious 1.5C-aligned emissions reduction target at COP29 last month and is encouraging other countries to do the same.

UK’s current and next carbon budgets are set on a territorial basis as follows:

• Carbon Budget 4 (2023-2027) limits UK net territorial greenhouse gas emissions to 1,950 MtCO₂e over the period.
• Carbon Budget 5 (2028-2032) limits UK net territorial greenhouse gas emissions to 1,725 MtCO₂e over the period.

Carbon Budget 6 (2033-2037) includes emissions from international aviation and shipping and is set at 965 MtCO₂e over the period.

The Carbon Budget levels have been set in line with advice from the independent Climate Change Committee.

The Government will lay a report before Parliament next year, setting out its plans for meeting UK emissions targets up to the end of carbon budget 6 in 2037 - this will set out the forecast emissions savings associated with specific policies and proposals.

The UK’s 2030 nationally determined contribution – to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68% on 1990s levels – is a fair and ambitious contribution to global action on climate change, in line with the Paris Agreement temperature goal. NDCs are international communications of ambition under the Paris Agreement, submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Alongside our international commitments, the UK was the first country to introduce a legally binding, long-term emissions reduction target under the Climate Change Act 2008. This framework includes the UK’s legislated 2050 net zero target, which the Climate Change Committee has confirmed is consistent with the trajectory of the UK’s 2030 NDC.

The Climate Change Act made the UK the first country to introduce a legally binding, long-term emissions reduction target. This sets our commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 in law. As advised by the UK’s Committee on Climate Change in June 2019 and December 2020, this target aligns with the published pathways from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for meeting the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature goal of 1.5°C.

The Climate Change Act made the UK the first country to introduce a legally binding, long-term emissions reduction target. This sets our commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 in law.

We are committed to our targets, and by setting carbon budgets 12 years ahead, we have given both business and the public certainty on carbon budgets. This has also provided a clear framework for the private sector to invest and innovate.

There is strong public support for climate action from Government. We will continue to work with all stakeholders including businesses, local authorities, civil society and investors to meet our net zero targets.

The Paris Agreement holds governments to account for their obligations through transparency and review mechanisms, which can result in reputational damage and international pressure for non-compliance. These mechanisms include the NDC Synthesis Report, which identifies progress made globally against Parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions; the Enhanced Transparency Framework, which requires Parties to report transparently on action taken and progress made; and the Global Stocktake, which requires Parties to periodically take stock of the implementation of their mitigation commitments. Additionally, Parties must provide information necessary to track progress in implementing and achieving their NDCs and participate in the facilitative multilateral consideration of progress, which involves a technical expert review. The Paris Agreement also has a mechanism to facilitate the implementation of and promote compliance with the Agreement. This is supported by an expert Committee which is non-adversarial and non-punitive.

Under the Gambling Act 2005, there is no offence for advertising unlicensed gambling. The offence is for the advertising of unlawful gambling under section 330 of the Gambling Act. Unlicensed gambling becomes unlawful if the facilities are available to consumers in Great Britain. If an unlicensed gambling operator can demonstrate that British consumers are blocked from accessing, registering or gambling on its site, it would not be breaking the law. Nevertheless, we are aware that Internet Protocol (IP) blocking technology can be circumvented, usually where consumers use Virtual Private Networks.

It is for the Gambling Commission (GC) to decide when to investigate and what enforcement action may be required. The Commission is already taking forward action in this space. It independently verifies that effective blocking measures are in place, and has taken action where non-compliance has been identified. It may take action if a VPN was not effective or if, for example, the operator advertised routes around the VPN. The GC has had substantial engagement with football clubs on this issue, and has warned sports clubs that they could face prosecution if facilities to gamble are not blocked to consumers in Great Britain. Sports clubs are also expected to conduct ongoing monitoring of their sponsorship arrangements.

The Government believes that banning unlicensed sport sponsorship will bring clarity to this issue, and we will consult on this in spring 2026.