Claire Coutinho

The appointment process for Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon and the other members of the Race Equality Engagement Group (REEG) was informal ministerial appointment, by invitation, following appropriate due diligence checks.

This government will publish the terms of reference for the REEG, and the full membership, in due course.

REEG members will not be remunerated but will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses incurred in respect of the work of the REEG.

Members are expected to declare any conflicts of interest and to recuse themselves from any work where such a conflict, or perceived conflict, may arise.

The REEG will be supported by the Race Equality Unit, in the Office for Equality and Opportunity, from its existing allocation of staff.

The Government has written to the EHRC to confirm that we will share all the submissions which met the criteria of the previous Government’s call for input on single-sex spaces guidance.

The Government has written to the EHRC to confirm that we will share all the submissions with them which met the criteria of the previous Government’s call for input on single-sex spaces guidance in due course.

The Government has written to the EHRC to confirm that we will share all the submissions with them which met the criteria of the previous Government’s call for input on single-sex spaces guidance in due course.

The submissions to the previous Government’s call for input on single-sex spaces guidance which seem to have misinterpreted the Equality Act 2010 have been sent to the EHRC, as the relevant independent regulator, for further review.

The call for input on single-sex spaces guidance asked specifically for examples of policy or guidance ‘which states that people have a legal right to access single-sex spaces and services according to their self-identified gender’.

A total of 3,272 responses (excluding spam or ‘bot’ submissions) were received. Manual review of these responses found that many did not meet the criteria outlined on the call for input gov.uk page under ‘How to respond’. Some responses contained text which was irrelevant to the request (2,160). Some responses did not contain an attachment or a link to a policy or guidance (255). Some responses provided examples that were outside the criteria (196). Some responses met the criteria but provided examples of policies or guidance duplicated by other responses (257). The final sample comprised 404 responses which met the criteria.

The call for input on single-sex spaces guidance asked specifically for examples of policy or guidance ‘which states that people have a legal right to access single-sex spaces and services according to their self-identified gender’.

A total of 3,272 responses (excluding spam or ‘bot’ submissions) were received. Manual review of these responses found that many did not meet the criteria outlined on the call for input gov.uk page under ‘How to respond’. Some responses contained text which was irrelevant to the request (2,160). Some responses did not contain an attachment or a link to a policy or guidance (255). Some responses provided examples that were outside the criteria (196). Some responses met the criteria but provided examples of policies or guidance duplicated by other responses (257). The final sample comprised 404 responses which met the criteria.

The Gender Recognition (Approved Countries and Territories and Saving Provision) Order 2023 was approved by Parliament in April 2024, the first update to the list of approved countries in 13 years.

We are committed to more regularly updating the list of approved countries and territories when applying for gender recognition in the UK. We continue to work with our counterparts in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to ensure that any changes internationally are monitored and noted for future updates.

We will publish a response to the call for input on single-sex spaces guidance, including the number of valid responses, in due course.

Positive discrimination is treatment which favours someone solely because he or she has a particular protected characteristic such as their sex or race. Positive discrimination is generally unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 and therefore guidance has not been issued.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Balancing Services Use of System (BSUoS) charges are administered by the National Energy System Operator (NESO). The variable nature of renewable and low carbon intermittent sources of generation can require NESO to undertake additional grid balancing actions. The Government does not hold data apportioning overall balancing costs to these generation sources specifically. NESO publishes BSUoS charges here: Balancing Services Use of System (BSUoS) charges | National Energy System Operator

The Government does not hold this information. Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) charges recover the cost of installing and maintaining the high-voltage transmission network, which are paid for by electricity suppliers and transmission-connected generators and administered by the National Energy System Operator (NESO). The charges reflect the costs imposed on the network by generators and demand in different locations. NESO publishes annual TNUoS charges here: https://www.neso.energy/industry-information/charging/tnuos-charges#TNUOS-tariffs-and-notifications-of-changes.

The Government does not hold this information. Distribution Use of System (DUoS) charges are paid for by electricity suppliers and distribution connected generators

and passed onto consumers through electricity bills. Each Distribution Network Operator (DNO) publishes charging statements every year, which are publicly available on their websites. The system is experiencing rising DUoS charges, due partly to the costs of upgrading the network to connect renewable generation and storage. However, the Government does not hold estimates apportioning overall distribution network costs to these generation sources specifically.

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.

The Smart Export Guarantee is a market-driven mechanism that captures the value of small-scale exported electricity and helps meet net zero commitments at the lowest net cost to consumers and businesses.

This means that SEG tariffs are set by energy suppliers and the SEG is not expected to lead to a direct cost on consumer bills.

REGO certificates are issued by Ofgem to eligible generators for free, and certificates are then purchased by electricity suppliers to surrender in the Fuel Mix Disclosure process. This has generated a market for the sale and purchase of certificates.

The price of REGOs fluctuates, though credible external estimates suggest that the latest spot market price is around £7 a certificate. Ofgem reports 130 million certificates are issued per year, giving an overall market value of around £910m annually.

The Government does not hold this information. Distribution Use of System (DUoS) charges are paid for by electricity suppliers and distribution connected generators

and passed onto consumers through electricity bills. Each Distribution Network Operator (DNO) publishes charging statements every year, which are publicly available on their websites. The system is experiencing rising DUoS charges, due partly to the costs of upgrading the network to connect renewable generation and storage. However, the Government does not hold estimates apportioning overall distribution network costs to these generation sources specifically.

It is DESNZ policy to publish contracted technical work once it has been independently internally peer reviewed. We intend to similarly publish the report by European Economic Research Limited once it is completed in April.

This project was awarded through an open tender process, which concluded in November. As part of this process, the terms of reference for the project were publicly disclosed. Once the tender closed and had been awarded to the European Economic Research Limited, we published a Contract Award Notice, (CAN) on the government Contracts Finder website.

This information will be made publicly available the usual way through the Department's annual report and accounts.

The provision of Free Allocation under the UK ETS mitigates the risk of carbon leakage and associated offshoring of emissions by reducing industrial sectors’ exposure to the carbon price. The UK ETS Authority is reviewing Free Allocation policy to ensure it targets sectors most at risk of carbon leakage and is currently consulting on this topic, including alignment with the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

The Authority will assess how Free Allocation interacts with other policies to ensure a holistic approach to carbon leakage mitigation. An Impact Assessment will be published alongside the Government Response to the Free Allocation Review

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has contracted European Economic Research Limited to analyse the future net energy demand of AI and the National Electricity System Operator (NESO) is investigating the future power consumption of data centres. These assessments will help the Department evaluate the potential impact of AI-driven technologies on electricity demand trends.

DSIT and DESNZ officials are currently agreeing the membership and Terms of Reference of the AI Energy Council and as part of this they are also discussing how to engage with the National Energy System Operator and Distribution Network Operators.

DSIT and DESNZ officials are currently agreeing the membership and Terms of Reference of the AI Energy Council and as part of this they are also discussing how to engage with the renewables, nuclear, and oil and gas industry.