Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of a guaranteed strike price for sustainable aviation fuel on the (a) costs (i) of air fares and (ii) for (A) manufacturers and (B) the wood panel industry and (b) market for feedstock materials.

We will be delivering a Revenue Certainty Mechanism to derisk Sustainable Aviation Fuel projects in the UK and encourage investment. This will play a key role in growing the economy and bringing down our transport emissions.

A cost-benefit analysis will be published alongside the introduction of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (Revenue Support Mechanism) Bill, which was announced for this Parliamentary session in the King’s Speech. This will include its potential impact on air fares. We will control the cost of the revenue certainty mechanism by managing the scale and number of contracts entered into, as well as the prices negotiated, thereby helping protect consumers and airlines from price increases and fluctuations. We therefore expect any rises to be in line with the usual market variation of ticket prices. We have not assessed its impact on manufacturers, the wood panel industry or the market for feedstocks as these effects will depend significantly on the plants that are supported through the mechanism.

We will regularly monitor the costs and impacts of the Revenue Certainty Mechanism to avoid undue burdens across the economy.