Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her planned timetable is for completing the review of the (a) emission trading scheme and (b) sale of unused credits by companies that have closed down factories in the UK.

We have published the review of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme this week, available on gov.uk.

In the UK ETS, sites at risk of carbon leakage are given a proportion of their allowances for free, helping manage the risk that UK businesses’ decarbonisation efforts could be undermined by higher-carbon imports.

The scheme sets out rules around free allowances, including on their reduction and return where sites’ production and emissions levels decrease. We have published a consultation this week reviewing these rules, with proposals to ensure that surplus allowances are not retained by companies that have closed down in the UK.