Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the additional cost to businesses and consumers since the beginning of 2025 arising from increase UK ETS Allowance prices following the announcement of the Government’s intention to link the UK Emissions Trading Scheme with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The price of carbon allowances in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme is set by the market.
As the conveners of the market the Government is not able to comment on current prices and price movements.
Linking the UK ETS and EU ETS is expected to bring significant economic benefits to the UK.
These include for example providing businesses with access to a larger, stable carbon market; and the removal of some of the regulatory barriers in sectors like CO2 storage.
Additionally, linking is expected to create the conditions for mutual CBAM exemptions, removing a major barrier to trade and lowering costs for UK firms.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether the Government's position that aligning the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme will prevent an £800 million impact from the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, refers to savings in a single year or to a cumulative impact over multiple years.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Linking the UK ETS and EU ETS is expected to bring significant economic benefits to the UK.
These include providing businesses with access to a larger, stable carbon market; the removal of regulatory barriers in sectors like CO2 storage; supporting UK renewable rollout; and lowering electricity costs in the long run.
Additionally, linking is expected to create the conditions for mutual CBAM exemptions, removing a major barrier to trade and lowering costs for UK firms. The £800m estimate is from a Frontier Economics report and refers to cumulative savings between 2026 and 2030.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether any cost benefit analysis conducted by his Department on linking the UK Emissions Trading Scheme with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme assessed the potential impact of higher UK Allowance prices on UK industry and consumers as a result of price convergence.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The price of carbon allowances in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme is set by the market.
As the conveners of the market the Government is not able to comment on current prices and price movements.
Linking the UK ETS and EU ETS is expected to bring significant economic benefits to the UK.
These include for example providing businesses with access to a larger, stable carbon market; and the removal of some of the regulatory barriers in sectors like CO2 storage.
Additionally, linking is expected to create the conditions for mutual CBAM exemptions, removing a major barrier to trade and lowering costs for UK firms.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department conducted a cost-benefit analysis to support the decision to link the UK Emissions Trading Scheme with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government analysis indicates linking could stimulate economic growth, adding billions annually to our economy each year in the long run.
Linking the UK and EU ETSs is expected to bring significant economic benefits to the UK. These include for example providing businesses with access to a larger, stable carbon market; and the removal of some of the regulatory barriers in sectors like CO2 storage.
Additionally, linking is expected to create the conditions for mutual CBAM exemptions, removing a major barrier to trade and lowering costs for UK firms.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State 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.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, 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.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, 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.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether it remains his policy to cut energy bills by £300 by 2030.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many heat pump installations have been directly funded by his Department outside the Boiler Upgrade Scheme since July 2024.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
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.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, 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.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
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.