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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the response by Lord Callanan on 13 December (HL Deb, col 3) that the "evidence is independently audited", who undertakes such assessments; what percentage of imports are assessed; and how many independent audits have found that biomass products used have not met the sustainability criteria.

The assessments are performed by independent auditors who are qualified to perform assurance engagements in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised) and the relevant legislation (Article 84(3) of the Renewables Obligation Order 2015).

Annual sustainability audit reports are performed in line with the ISAE 3000 (Revised) standards. The auditor will select a limited assurance sample, taken from all biomass products, based on a risk assessment.

Ofgem publish independently verified information on how generators have reported against the sustainability criteria in their annual biomass datasets and RO annual reports, which can be found on Ofgem’s website. The information for Drax in these datasets shows that no instances have been found where fuels at Drax have been reported as unsustainable.