Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he has taken to ensure that payments made under the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive scheme are provided to biomass boilers using wood fuel that meet certain (a) sustainability and (b) additional legal requirements.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Renewable Heat Incentive scheme was introduced in 2011. In 2015, the Government introduced new legislation which required all biomass boilers on the scheme to adhere to certain land and sustainability criteria. The Government has also introduced a new fuel quality standard and annual maintenance checks for biomass boilers on the scheme, in line with its 2019 Clean Air Strategy. Both requirements came into force on 01 April 2022.
The scheme is administered by Ofgem who carry out frequent audits to ensure compliance.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what payments have been under the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive scheme in each of (a) 2020 and (b) 2021.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme payments are accounted for by financial year (FY), ending 31 March. In terms of committed payments, which include actual payments made and expected payments due but not yet claimed for, our latest estimation is that committed payments for FY2020/21 are £917m and £992m for FY2021/22.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the total cost to the Government was of its agreement in September 2021 to meet the costs to CF Industries of reopening one or more of its sites producing commercial carbon dioxide.
Answered by Lee Rowley
This is commercially sensitive information that relates to a company’s production costs and sales. It is not appropriate to provide figures of costs at this time. Details of our support will be published in the 2021-22 BEIS Annual Report and Accounts which will be available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much his Department spent in total on social media advertising in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021 and (d) 2022 as of 28 February 2022; and on which platforms that money was spent.
Answered by George Freeman
Social media advertising spend by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is included in marketing spend data published on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-spend-control-data.