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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of which (1) energy and (2) climate related areas the revenue from the carbon tax is currently spent on; and what assessment has been made of using those revenues for increased investment in energy efficiency improvements in the housing stock to ensure statutory fuel poverty requirements are met.

The Carbon Emissions Tax has not been introduced in the UK and would only be introduced in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal. Therefore, there is no current revenue from this tax.

Revenue from the Carbon Price Support rate and from EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) auctions are not directly hypothecated with revenue going into the Consolidated Fund. The UK spends far in excess of the 50% of revenues from the EU ETS auctions required by the EU on climate and energy areas, for example, the UK will spend at least £5.8bn on international climate finance, helping developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change through coalitions and partnerships, between 2016 and 2020. The UK has committed to spending over £2.5bn on research into low carbon innovation, including clean energy, between 2015 and 2021.

Government has committed to a £6bn programme of spend on home energy efficiency and also to tackling fuel poverty, with all of the current Energy Company Obligation focused on low income and vulnerable households.