Department for Energy Security & Net Zero

The Government takes the security and resilience of UK energy infrastructure very seriously.

The department works closely with other government departments, agencies and industry partners to understand, assess and mitigate threats to energy infrastructure.

The department is committed to working closely across Government and industry stakeholders to take forward the actions needed to develop supply chains that are resilient, sustainable, innovative and secure.

We take a consistent, long-term and strategic approach to managing relations with China and will co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must.

Great British Energy will lead the way in ethical supply chains by engaging with stakeholders to raise standards, explore alternatives to diversify high-risk supply chains, and work internationally to align with leading global partners.

As a publicly owned company, Great British Energy is expected to be a first in class example of adherence to the UK’s legislation and guidance on modern slavery, including the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and is actively engaging with partners to raise the bar globally on solar supply chain transparency and accountability.

Solar purchasing has been undertaken by Devolved Governments, Other Government Departments, NHS Trusts, and relevant Mayoral Combined Authorities, under clear expectations by GBE that they must comply with UK procurement rules, including requirements under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and Procurement Act 2023, as well as seeking out additional reassurances where necessary.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 24^th October to my hon Friend the Member for Slough (TanmanJeet Singh Dhesi) to question UIN [14374].

The electricity network companies are responsible for building, owning and operating the grid, and Government is working with them, Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator to accelerate the delivery of critical network infrastructure and reform the grid connections process to support energy security and industrial investment.

Grid expansion will be a critical enabler for both the government’s Clean Energy Superpower and Growth missions.

The recent interim publication of the Electricity Networks Sector Growth Plan by industry and Government demonstrates the positive impact network expansion will have specifically in the electricity networks supply chain.

Net zero is the economic and industrial opportunity of the 21st century. Since July 2024, over £60bn of private investment has been announced in our clean energy industries.

The independent CCC estimates net costs of the transition to be on average the equivalent of 0.2% of UK GDP per year, and this doesn't account for the wider growth benefits. The OBR's ‘Fiscal risks and sustainability report’ (2025) makes clear, meeting climate targets will cost less than failing to deal with climate change. Only by investing in the transition now can we reduce costs in future.

ECO4 has played a part in delivering clean heat technologies; however, issues identified by the NAO and PAC support a shift to a more direct, publicly-funded approach focused on technologies that cut bills and accelerate the transition to clean heat such as heat pumps, solar PV and batteries. The government is providing an additional £1.5 billion—taking planned capital investment to almost £15 billion—to upgrade low‑income homes and scale clean home‑energy technologies. Deployment will be further supported through wider policies and details of this will be set out soon in the Warm Homes Plan.

ECO4 has played a part in delivering clean heat technologies; however, issues identified by the NAO and PAC support a shift to a more direct, publicly-funded approach focused on technologies that cut bills and accelerate the transition to clean heat such as heat pumps, solar PV and batteries. The government is providing an additional £1.5 billion—taking planned capital investment to almost £15 billion—to upgrade low‑income homes and scale clean home‑energy technologies. Deployment will be further supported through wider policies and details of this will be set out soon in the Warm Homes Plan.

The Government is carrying out a review of Ofgem to re-establish it as a strong consumer champion, driving up standards for household and business consumers. The outcome of the review will be published shortly.

The Government has also consulted on strengthening the Energy Ombudsman to ensure that, where complaints have been escalated to the Ombudsman, suppliers comply with its final decisions or pay compensation to their customers. The Government is also working with Ofgem to look at increasing the value of automatic compensation paid to customers when errors are made and expanding automatic compensation to cover more key issues faced by consumers, including when suppliers fail to adjust their Direct Debits.

The sector is nascent but is expected to grow significantly; the global hydrogen market could exceed $1 trillion by 2050, with the UK well positioned to capture a substantial share.

We intend to publish a revised Hydrogen Strategy which will include the latest hydrogen jobs estimates and set out plans to optimise the job creation and economic benefits delivered by the UK hydrogen economy.

We will continue to engage with stakeholders across the hydrogen value chain; working together with industry and unions to identify actions that support the skills and workforce needs of the UK’s low carbon hydrogen economy.

We remain committed to delivering net zero and are clear this will require us to decarbonise virtually all heat in buildings. The previous Government planned to end the installation of new and replacement oil, LPG and coal heating systems in homes in England from 2035. This government has been clear on several occasions that we will not force anyone to rip out a working boiler, instead we will make use of all available data to inform future decisions on heat decarbonisation.

We will soon publish our Warm Homes Plan which represents the biggest ever public investment in home upgrades. This will include support for clean heating technologies like heat pumps and heat networks.

The Government has committed to additional grant funding of £1.5bn which will be directed towards upgrading low-income households, benefiting those in fuel poverty. Details of this will be included within the Government’s ambitious Warm Homes Plan.

The Government is also developing a new fuel poverty strategy for England to ensure that more households can afford to heat their home at a reasonable cost, slash fuel poverty and improve their quality of life. This will include funding energy efficiency upgrades and low-carbon heating for social housing residents, lower income households, and renters, via the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and Warm Homes: Local Grant schemes.

In order to keep the level of reporting obligations on businesses to a minimum, DESNZ does not collect information detailing the uptake of energy management improvements by businesses.

Specific small business funding in Northumberland is available through North East Growth Hub, Business Northumberland and The Northumberland Small Business Service. Details are available at https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/business/grants-funding/grants-funding

Small businesses can search for other local grant and advice schemes on the finance and support for businesses page on gov.uk.

In order to keep the level of reporting obligations on businesses to a minimum, DESNZ does not collect information detailing the uptake of energy management improvements by businesses.

Specific small business funding in Northumberland is available through North East Growth Hub, Business Northumberland and The Northumberland Small Business Service. Details are available at https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/business/grants-funding/grants-funding

Small businesses can search for other local grant and advice schemes on the finance and support for businesses page on gov.uk.

In order to keep the level of reporting obligations on businesses to a minimum, DESNZ does not collect information detailing the uptake of energy management improvements by businesses.

Specific small business funding in Northumberland is available through North East Growth Hub, Business Northumberland and The Northumberland Small Business Service. Details are available at https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/business/grants-funding/grants-funding

Small businesses can search for other local grant and advice schemes on the finance and support for businesses page on gov.uk.

Fuel price trends are monitored nationally and published in the Department’s weekly statistics on GOV.UK. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) oversee market transparency and compliance and publish quarterly and yearly reports on GOV.UK.

The Net Zero target in the Climate Change Act 2008, is a target for the whole of the UK, not individual departments or arms-length bodies.

Greening Government Commitments are the central framework setting out the actions UK government departments and their agencies will take to reduce their impacts on the environment, including setting targets to reduce emissions, during the framework period.

Defra are reviewing the Greening Government Commitments to ensure that they remain aligned with government priorities.

ECO4 has played a part in delivering clean heat technologies; however, issues identified by the NAO and PAC support a shift to a more direct, publicly-funded approach focused on technologies that cut bills and accelerate the transition to clean heat such as heat pumps, solar PV and batteries. The government is providing an additional £1.5 billion—taking planned capital investment to almost £15 billion—to upgrade low‑income homes and scale clean home‑energy technologies. Deployment will be further supported through wider policies and details of this will be set out soon in the Warm Homes Plan.

The government remains committed to delivering the Warm Homes Plan which will be published soon. At the Autumn Budget 2024 the Chancellor announced an additional £1.5 billion of funding for the Warm Homes Plan, bringing total capital investment to almost £15 billion. This exceeds the manifesto commitment of £13.2 billion.

As part of the development of the Plan, this department has engaged with a broad range of stakeholders through a variety of different fora to ensure a wide range of views are considered.

This includes working with local authorities and social housing providers, who in March last year were allocated £1.8 billion to install energy saving measures across the country through the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and Local Grant.

Before the Paris Agreement, policies in place put the world on track for around 4°C of warming by 2100. In 2013, Climate Action Tracker estimated close to 4°C of warming, with a one-in-three chance of exceeding 4°C. In 2010, the Emissions Gap Report from the United Nations Environment Programme estimated that even if announced climate pledges were delivered, temperatures could increase by up to 5°C. The latest Emissions Gap Report estimates that Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), mandated by the Paris Agreement, put the world on course for 2.3°C-2.5°C, or 1.9°C if all countries meet their NDC and net zero commitments.

The 2025 sub-regional fuel poverty statistics (using 2023 data) use the LILEE (Low Income, Low Energy Efficiency) metric to estimate fuel poverty for local areas. In 2023, 16,198 households were estimated to be in fuel poverty in the Northumberland local authority, representing 10.7% of households in this area. In 2023, 4,614 households were estimated to be in fuel poverty in the Hexham constituency, representing 10.8% of households in this area.

For the wider North East region, we refer to the 2025 fuel poverty statistics, which use the LILEE metric to estimate fuel poverty at regional level. In 2024, 123,000 households were fuel poor in the North East region, representing 10.1% of households in this region.

The 2025 sub-regional fuel poverty statistics (using 2023 data) use the LILEE (Low Income, Low Energy Efficiency) metric to estimate fuel poverty for local areas. In 2023, 16,198 households were estimated to be in fuel poverty in the Northumberland local authority, representing 10.7% of households in this area. In 2023, 4,614 households were estimated to be in fuel poverty in the Hexham constituency, representing 10.8% of households in this area.

For the wider North East region, we refer to the 2025 fuel poverty statistics, which use the LILEE metric to estimate fuel poverty at regional level. In 2024, 123,000 households were fuel poor in the North East region, representing 10.1% of households in this region.

The 2025 sub-regional fuel poverty statistics (using 2023 data) use the LILEE (Low Income, Low Energy Efficiency) metric to estimate fuel poverty for local areas. In 2023, 16,198 households were estimated to be in fuel poverty in the Northumberland local authority, representing 10.7% of households in this area. In 2023, 4,614 households were estimated to be in fuel poverty in the Hexham constituency, representing 10.8% of households in this area.

For the wider North East region, we refer to the 2025 fuel poverty statistics, which use the LILEE metric to estimate fuel poverty at regional level. In 2024, 123,000 households were fuel poor in the North East region, representing 10.1% of households in this region.

The Government is ambitious about the role of local and community energy in delivering our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower. We will publish our Local Power Plan soon which will set out how we will work with communities to deliver significant growth in community energy.

Ministers and officials in the department, have visited community energy projects and attended events held by community energy affiliated organisations throughout this year, such as Community Energy England's Annual conference on 1^st July 2025.

In March 2025, the department also hosted the DESNZ ‘Community Energy Day’, bringing together over 100 representatives from community energy groups and around 40 civil servants from across Government departments. The event provided a platform to showcase innovative projects, foster collaboration, and was widely regarded as a highly successful and energising day, with both ministerial and official attendance.

We also fund the Net Zero Hubs. The Net Zero Hubs also organise events, conferences and webinars across England to increase collaboration between local authorities and community groups, showcase funding opportunities, and increase the pipeline of community energy projects, like Northumberland Community Energy’s planned further rollout of rooftop solar panels.

Support may be available to houseboats dwellers via the Industry Initiative element of the Warm Home Discount Scheme. These are energy-related and financial measures that energy suppliers can deliver to their own customers or working with industry partners. These include energy efficiency measures, energy advice, boiler and central heating replacements, financial assistance payments and debt write-off,

Each participating supplier has a spending obligation towards Industry Initiatives. This allows them to help customers who are fuel poor or at risk of fuel poverty through a variety of activities and third parties. Households are encouraged to contact any participating supplier about the Industry Initiatives they offer, without the need to be an existing customer.

The Government received independent advice from NESO on achieving clean power by 2030, published in November 2024. This allowed for a fourfold increase in data centre electricity demand between then and 2030, within an overall conclusion that clean power by 2030 is challenging but achievable.

ECO4 has played a part in delivering clean heat technologies; however, issues identified by the NAO and PAC support a shift to a more direct, publicly-funded approach focused on technologies that cut bills and accelerate the transition to clean heat such as heat pumps, solar PV and batteries. The government is providing an additional £1.5 billion—taking planned capital investment to almost £15 billion—to upgrade low‑income homes and scale clean home‑energy technologies. Deployment will be further supported through wider policies and details of this will be set out soon in the Warm Homes Plan.

We are not aware of any project in development that plans to install large numbers of solar panels on vertical surfaces. However, we are looking to increase deployment of all types of solar, including through applications such as plug-in solar which can be installed on the walls of buildings.

Plug-in solar can provide opportunities for households to adopt solar more cheaply. Currently, UK regulations do not allow plug-in solar to be used in the UK, but the government has commenced a safety study with the aim of unlocking opportunities for its deployment over the next few years.

ECO4 has played a part in delivering clean heat technologies; however, issues identified by the NAO and PAC support a shift to a more direct, publicly-funded approach focused on technologies that cut bills and accelerate the transition to clean heat such as heat pumps, solar PV and batteries. The government is providing an additional £1.5 billion—taking planned capital investment to almost £15 billion—to upgrade low‑income homes and scale clean home‑energy technologies. Deployment will be further supported through wider policies and details of this will be set out soon in the Warm Homes Plan.

We published a consultation in late November seeking views on a number of proposals to expand the UK ETS to the international maritime voyages.

When we responded to the consultation on expansion to domestic maritime emissions, we also published a full impact assessment. This includes detail on the compliance costs for the expansion to domestic voyages.

We will publish a full impact assessment on the expansion to international voyages alongside the Authority Response to the consultation.

Information on the number of civil servants employed on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the quarterly Public Sector Employment statistics. Information can be accessed for September 2025 at the following web address:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/bulletins/publicsectoremployment/september2025

Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Annual Report and Accounts. The latest report for FY 2024/25 can be found at the following web address:

DESNZ annual report and accounts 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK

The North Sea is a highly mature basin, and its natural decline would not be reversed by further licensing. New licences awarded in the last decade have made only a marginal difference to overall oil and gas production.

Further exploration and production licences would not meaningfully increase UK production levels, nor would they change the UK’s status as a net importer of oil and gas.

The UK ETS Authority is made up of the UK Government and the devolved governments. Within the UK Government, my department, the Department for Transport and HM Treasury all work jointly to develop and implement the inclusion of maritime emissions in the UK ETS. This expansion will strengthen the scheme’s ability to deliver cost-effective emissions reductions, supporting the UK’s statutory carbon budgets and Net Zero target.

Investing in the grid is a key Government priority. The Government supports Ofgem in developing a price control that enable necessary investment in the electricity network for the clean energy and growth missions, including maritime transport electrification. The next distribution price control, ED3 covering 2028 to 2033, will be informed by Regional Energy Strategic Plans to support strategic network investments.

We understand the significance of getting sufficient grid capacity to electrify ports, for cruise and ferries to use shore power and policy options to accelerate connection dates for strategic demand customers, such as critical port sites. This is informed by the Department for Transport’s call for evidence on Net Zero Ports, published in March 2025, which posed questions on managing future energy demand at ports.

This Department’s approach is founded on the best scientific evidence which, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says that ambitious action to reach net zero by mid-century is essential to limiting warming to as low as possible. Our in-house team of scientists ensure robust scientific advice supports our climate and energy policy.

The Secretary of State regularly speaks to his Cabinet colleagues about these issues. On Heathrow, this Government is clear that expansion must be compatible with our legally binding carbon budgets and net zero. We are committed to ensuring that the economic benefits of airport expansions are delivered in line with our environmental and climate objectives.

We are aware of the significant potential that commercial rooftops have in supporting our Clean Power mission, and we are working closely with industry to unlock this potential.

Commercial rooftop solar has been a key agenda item at both Solar Council meetings this year as we continue to monitor delivery of the Solar Roadmap actions.

The Government recognises the renewable resource that the UK has for geothermal energy. However, the Deep Geothermal opportunities vary across the UK depending on Geology. Geothermal technologies that generate electricity are eligible for Contracts for Difference, which is the Government's main mechanism for supporting low carbon energy generation

The National Energy System Operator has assured me of its assessment that industry have suitable arrangements in place this winter. Network operators have established customer support measures for power outages, including communications, welfare provision and tailored support for vulnerable customers.

Our policy remains unchanged. Solar farms should be built on brownfield sites or previously developed land, wherever possible. Where the development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, lower-quality land should be preferred to higher-quality land.

The government will provide a framework that will set out a pathway for privately led advanced nuclear projects, this framework will be published early this year.

Great British Energy (GBE), intends to provide support to local authorities in delivering local and community energy projects across the UK, including in areas without Mayoral Combined Authorities. This will include consideration of targeted grants and finance to help projects reach investment readiness and deliver good value for money. Further details of this support will be set out through the upcoming Local Power Plan and other future GBE publications

The Government recognises the potential of marine energy to support the UK’s transition to net zero. Independent studies, including those by the Carbon Trust and the Royal Society, have assessed the scale and value of the UK’s tidal stream and wave energy resources.

We continue to drive UK marine energy development through policy levers such as the Contracts for Difference scheme and innovation funding delivered via UK Research & Innovation. Through these measures, the UK is on track to deploy over 120 MW of tidal stream capacity by 2029, secured through the last three CfD allocation rounds.

The first iteration of the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) will not include spatial optimisation for wave and tidal energy projects as they are emerging technologies and volumes in development are currently very low. As policy and technology advance, the Government and NESO will keep this position under review and may consider the inclusion of wave and tidal energy in future iterations of the SSEP.

The first iteration of the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) will not include spatial optimisation for wave and tidal energy projects as they are emerging technologies and volumes in development are currently very low. As policy and technology advance, the Government and NESO will keep this position under review and may consider the inclusion of wave and tidal energy in future iterations of the SSEP.

The Government has no current plans to extend the licensing by Ofgem of gas and electricity operators to the supply of off-grid heating fuels, such as fuel oils, bottled gas or coal and wood products. However, Ofgem and the Competition and Markets Authority have powers to enforce the rights of consumers under consumer law, such as the Consumer Rights Act.