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 remove subsidies for biomass fuels to discourage their importation.

The Government does not subsidise biomass fuels. The Government supports a range of renewable technologies which can use biomass fuels in generating low carbon energy for electricity, heat and transport. We do not distinguish between domestic and imported biomass fuels but there are standards on sustainability and greenhouse gas savings which apply to all biomass receiving subsidy.

On 9 November 2016 the Department published a call for evidence on renewable fuelled technologies in the Contracts for Difference scheme. The response to this consultation may help inform future policy decisions, including whether the support we currently offer to these technologies through the CFD is right for delivering our objectives on value for money for decarbonisation.