Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the cost of claims pursuant to his Department's Feed-in Tariffs consultation launched in October 2011; and if he will make a statement.

Following the changes made in 2011, the solar PV industry has enjoyed huge success in the UK. The industry is now worth £2.2 billion a year. This owes much to carefully-controlled Government support, and at the same time tariff changes which protected consumers from a £50 a year bill rise by 2020.

In good faith, we proposed what we believed to be lawful changes to subsidies, in the interests principally of protecting consumers from rising bills at a time when windfall profits meant that the solar PV industry was booming, and we do not have the information necessary to estimate the value of the claims.

There are elements of the judgment which we will be seeking permission to appeal.