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 (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
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 the Gas Shippers Obligation on energy bills.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
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 the target for 10GW of hydrogen production capacity on energy bills by 2030.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
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, 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.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
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 the total cost of procuring frequency control services was in each month since January 2022.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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”.
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, when he plans to publish his Department's hydrogen to power business model.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
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, for what reason his Department has not conducted an impact assessment of its proposed extension of the Drax Power Station subsidy arrangements.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
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, 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.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
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 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.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
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 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.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.