Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to safeguard the operation of the (a) Billingham and (b) Ince fertiliser plants.

An industry agreement reached in October ensured that CF Fertilisers on Teesside could continue to operate for 3 months. This market-led agreement was renewed in January 2022 and continue a the current time, even with high global gas prices.

The Government welcomes industry’s agreement which is in the best interests of businesses.

The continued operations at Billingham, and any decision to restart operations at Ince, remains a commercial matter for the company. In the longer term, the Government would like to see the market take measures to improve resilience, and we are engaging on ways this could happen. We would encourage industry, where possible, to pay a price necessary to continue to secure the supply of these critical chemicals and to continue to build their resilience plans.