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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Contracts for Difference scheme provides sufficient long-term visibility to investors making financial decisions.

The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme has been successful in bringing forward renewable generation whilst also reducing the costs of technology and since its inception has become established as a route to bring forward investment at scale. As set out in my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Ministers’ Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, we have committed to holding regular CfD allocation rounds approximately every two years, and the next round will open in December 2021. The Department continues to keep the scheme under review to ensure it maintains a focus on investment certainty and stability to enable renewable deployment at scale. We recently concluded a Call for Evidence on this topic, seeking views to inform the future design and evolution of the CfD and will publish a response shortly.