Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to support the production of biomethane on farms using organic waste.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Green Gas Support Scheme (GGSS) provides tariff-support for biomethane produced via anaerobic digestion (AD) and injected into the gas grid. It is expected to contribute 10.7MTCO2e of carbon savings over its lifetime.
The GGSS requires that at least 50% of all biomethane, by energy content, is produced using waste feedstocks, which includes agricultural wastes.
The GGSS will close to new applicants on 31 March 2028. To follow this, the Government is developing a holistic policy framework to support the growth of the biomethane sector. The new framework includes consideration to the role of AD in treating agricultural wastes.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2024 to Question 11619 on the Groceries Code Adjudicator: Finance, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the £1 billion turnover threshold on farmers.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is responsible for monitoring effectiveness of the Groceries (Supply Chain Practices) Market Investigation Order 2009 in ensuring that businesses, including farmers, that supply groceries directly to designated retailers are treated lawfully and fairly. This includes the £1 billion threshold at which a retailer can be designated by the CMA.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of the use of hydrogen for decarbonising heavy goods vehicles.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is aware that hydrogen has a potential role to play in decarbonising heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).
The £200 million zero emission HGV and infrastructure demonstrator programme will demonstrate both battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on UK roads alongside recharging and refuelling infrastructure. The programme will gather data for a 5-year demonstration period which will be released publicly throughout the duration of the programme.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support waste collection authorities to deliver mandatory household food waste collections from 2026-27.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To support waste collection authorities to deliver household food waste collections, we provided capital transitional funding in February 2024 to cover reasonable costs of purchasing trucks and bins needed to deliver weekly food waste collections from 31 March 2026.
We are preparing to deliver transitional resource new burdens funding to local authorities for weekly food waste collections for households in two batches, one in early 2025 and the other in spring 2025.
Funding for ongoing resource funding from 1 April 2026 is subject to agreement through a spending review and we will confirm details when we can.
We are also working with sector specialists WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) to provide guidance on best practice and scope additional areas of support.