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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect on competitive advantage for companies in the energy-intensive industry sector of differences in eligibility thresholds for access to relief; and if he will meet representatives of that sector to discuss those differences in thresholds.

The Government has targeted its relief at the most electricity intensive industries operating in international markets, in line with the European Commission’s published Aid guidelines.

We recognise that in setting an eligibility threshold, there will be some companies that will not receive the relief while their direct competitors do. We have sought to address this by notifying the European Commission that we intend to provide relief to direct competitors who do not pass the eligibility threshold. We have had a number of discussions with the Commission on this proposal, although this has not been approved to date. We are keen to resolve how best to address the issues faced by direct competitors. We are therefore investigating options that may be available to us within the scope of EU State Aid guidelines.

BEIS officials are happy to meet with representatives to discuss this matter in further detail.