Draft Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Trudy Harrison Excerpts

Monday 23rd October 2023 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Trudy Harrison)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (Amendment) Regulations 2023.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Latham. The draft regulations were laid before the House on 4 September 2023.

Fluorinated greenhouse gases, also known as F-gases, are powerful greenhouse gases used mainly in refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, as well as for other uses such as medical inhalers. The most commonly known and used F-gases are known as hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. The purpose of this instrument is to correct a technical error in regulation No. 517/2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases, known as the F-gas regulation, which is retained EU law. The correction will ensure that annual quotas, which limit the quantity of HFCs that can be placed on the market in Great Britain each year, are calculated as intended. Pursuant to the Windsor framework, separate EU F-gas legislation and systems apply in Northern Ireland.

For Great Britain, the F-gas regulation has provisions to phase down the amount of HFCs placed on the market for the first time. This is implemented using a quota system. Importers and producers may place on the market only up to the amount of quota they hold. The regulation sets out the phasedown schedule, with the starting point being 2015.

Every three years, the amount of quota issued to businesses is reduced, thereby driving a move to lower carbon options while giving industry time and flexibility to choose how to transition. The F-gas regulation provides for a 79% reduction of HFCs placed on the market by 2030. We have already reduced HFC levels by 55% since 2015 through quota limits. Annual quota amounts allocated to businesses are calculated based on reference values. Article 16(3) provides for recalculation of the reference values by the appropriate regulator based on the annual average of HFCs placed on the market by a business from a specified start date.

This statutory instrument corrects a technical error made in previous amending legislation relating to that start date. The start date should have been January 2015, but was erroneously changed to January 2021. This SI corrects that mistake. If the error is not corrected, it will result in too little quota being issued to businesses, which was not the intended outcome when the F-gas regulation was retained and amended as part of the UK’s exit from the European Union. The intention was to retain the substance of the regulation, including the calculation of reference values and pace of phasedown of HFCs. Obviously, issuing too little quota to businesses would cause significant problems for HFC supply into Great Britain, disrupting sectors across the economy and the business community.

The territorial application of this instrument is in England, Wales and Scotland. A GB-wide F-gas regime currently operates under the regulation. I am pleased to say that ministerial consent has been provided by the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government. The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments considered this SI and cleared it without reporting it to the House at its meeting on 18 October 2023.

In conclusion, I hope the Committee understands the need for this SI. I reinforce that we have already reduced HFC levels by 55% since 2015 through the F-gas regulation and will continue to make good progress. For the reasons I have set out, I commend the regulations to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Trudy Harrison]

Let me answer the shadow Minister’s questions. We acknowledge that there was a mistake, which is how we are in this situation. There was an administrative error in the dates. Instead of going through the sifting committee, we in DEFRA chose to go for the affirmative option, which is why we are having this debate tonight. There are checks and balances, and that is how we came to discover that the date was not correct. We will continue with those checks and balances. As the hon. Lady will know, because we have left the European Union, there is a huge amount of work going on in DEFRA and, indeed, all Departments. Mistakes will be made, but it is important that those checks and balances are in place to catch any.

I thank hon. Members for their interest in this evening’s debate. The correction is most important because it will ensure that the Environment Agency recalculates the reference value correctly by the statutory deadline date of 31 October—not very long at all—and then it will continue every three years after that. Suffice it to say that everything has been covered, and I will take to my seat.

Question put and agreed to.