Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the potential risks of investing in carbon capture storage technology.

The Department has developed a risk management approach for monitoring the risks associated with investing in CCS technology. This approach follows government best practice and has been reviewed and approved by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s major projects gateway process. The Department has documented the material risks within the Full Business Cases for the two clusters. These FBCs have been reviewed and approved by the departmental investment committee and Major Projects Review Group, reflecting the fact that these bodies are satisfied that the programme’s approach to risk management is robust, and that the overall risk profile of the projects is consistent with the Department’s stated risk appetite.