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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress his Department has made on considering the case for future contracts for difference rounds for solar and onshore wind since October 2016; and if he will make a statement.

We are pleased that the costs of established technologies such as onshore wind and solar are continuing to fall and are increasingly competitive with conventional generation. No decision has been taken on running another Contracts for Difference allocation round for these technologies but we have said that we do not believe that more large-scale onshore wind power is right for England.

It is right that we should focus support on those technologies where it is most needed, which is why we announced in the Clean Growth Strategy that we would make up to £557 million of annual funding available for less established technologies including, subject to State aid approval, onshore wind projects on remote islands that directly benefit local communities. The next auction is planned for spring 2019.