Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has reviewed audits of application fees for the exemption of an appliance or appliances under the Clean Air Act 1993 in each of the last three years.

A fee is applicable to all exemption applications and these fees, which are published online, are reviewed annually by the appointed contractor. Application fees have not been amended in the last three years.

There have been no formal annual audits of fees and charges. The contractor is required to provide the Department with a quarterly breakdown of the charges to and payments received from manufacturers and applicants, including explanation of how charges have been determined, and these are scrutinised on receipt.