Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effects of the proposal to reduce the feed-in tariff payments for solar energy on (a) the UK solar power industry, (b) employment in the sector and (c) the cost and accessibility of solar power.

The current Feed-in Tariff Review consultation and accompanying Impact Assessment set out DECC’s assessment of the effect of scheme changes on solar PV deployment and expectations of future changes in technology costs.

The impact assessment does not quantify the impact of changes on employment levels either in the sector or in the wider economy. This is due to the lack of robust evidence on the number of jobs that FITs as a specific scheme has directly supported so far. We have asked a question in the consultation about the wider impact of changes.