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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the net cost to the public purse was of the (a) domestic and (b) non-domestic consumer Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme in Great Britain in each year since 2012; and what the budget is for subsidy payments to existing and future participants in those schemes in each year between 2007 and 2012; what assessment he has made of the need for a cap on the RHI schemes' overall expenditure; and if he will undertake a review of the (i) efficacy of such schemes and (b) costs of importing wood pellets.

(1) The budget and net cost of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) schemes in Great Britain are set out below. The Non-domestic RHI started in November 2011 and the Domestic RHI was launched in April 2014.

Data to end-Feb 2017. All figures rounded to nearest £1m.

* Budget is for subsidy payments only

**Programme costs include scheme development and administration costs

(2) A budget cap was introduced to the RHI in Spring 2016, so the schemes can be closed to new applicants if the annual budgets are at risk of being exceeded.

(3) The RHI schemes are evaluated regularly. The results of previous evaluations are available here:-

www.gov.uk/government/collections/renewable-heat-incentive-evaluation

(4) The government reviews the cost of wood pellets as part of periodic reviews of RHI tariffs. This was last done in 2016 as part of the RHI reforms which will be implemented this year. The share of imported wood pellets used by RHI participants is not known.