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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to introduce a sector deal for the anaerobic digestion and biomethane sector; and if he will make a statement.

We welcome conversations with the anaerobic digestion and biomethane industry about future industry development, and their role in the green recovery from covid-19. The Government is supportive of the growth of the anaerobic digestion and biomethane sector, and recognises that it is valuable across future decarbonisation pathways. Government has supported the growth of the AD sector through a number of incentive schemes: the Renewables Obligation (RO); the Feed-in Tariff s(FIT) scheme and Contracts for Difference (CfD) for electricity production and the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for biogas and heat production, including the use of biomethane in the gas grid. The non-domestic RHI will end in 2021, and will be followed by the Green Gas Support Scheme which will provide tariff support for biomethane injection to the gas grid. The RO and FIT schemes closed to new applications in March 2017 and 2019 respectively, and the new Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) came into effect on 1 January 2020, allowing small-scale low-carbon generators to sell their excess electricity back to the grid.