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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what policies the Government has in place to support the development of wave and tidal stream renewables.

The Government has a long history of supporting the development and deployment of wave and tidal stream technologies in the UK. To date, we have provided sustained and targeted support enabling the wave and tidal stream sectors to move from initial concept onto prototypes and now the first arrays. Since 2003 various bodies across Government have provided innovation funding of £175m to the wave and tidal sectors. Both technologies are eligible to participate in the Contracts for Difference scheme.

In the Clean Growth Strategy, which the Government published in October 2017, we underlined the need for renewable technologies to demonstrate on-going cost reduction and to compete with other forms of low carbon generation. The Government will continue to consider policy related to wave and tidal stream in light of this strategy and the information received under the recent Marine Energy Call for Evidence, which launched on 28 August.