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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Government plans to bring forward legislative proposals to set a mandatory date for boiler installations to be hydrogen ready or part of a hybrid system; and if he will make a statement.

Hydrogen could play a key role in eliminating our contribution to climate change by 2050 and is one of the options being explored to decarbonise heat in the UK alongside heat pumps, heat networks and biogas. However, further work is required to fully test and assess the potential of hydrogen as an option for decarbonising heating.

Prototype ‘hydrogen-ready boilers’ are being developed under the £25m BEIS Hy4Heat programme. This programme is seeking to investigate if it is technically possible and safe to replace methane with hydrogen in appliances for residential and commercial buildings and evaluate the likely costs and performance. The programme is due to be completed in 2021, and the Department will be reviewing the outputs from this technical work as it progresses.

The Government is planning to publish a Heat and Buildings Strategy in due course, which will set out the immediate actions we will take for reducing emissions from buildings.