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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to support households in rural areas with the rising cost of domestic heating oil.

Households not on standard gas or electricity contracts, such as those in rural areas, will receive equivalent support to that provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, and the Energy Price Guarantee. The Government is working at pace to determine the most practical and tested routes to deliver this support. As part of this, for households who do not use gas for domestic heating, the Government has committed to provide an additional payment of £100 to compensate for the rising costs of other fuels such as coal.