Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which provider supplies energy to her Department; how much CO2 was emitted through her Department’s energy consumption in the latest period for which figures are available; whether the criteria her Department uses to selecting an energy supplier include how environmentally friendly the supplier is; and what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce CO2 emissions from its energy use.

The department is mandated to use the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Energy frameworks for the supply of gas, electricity and liquid fuels. The CCS competes the frameworks on the open market and selects the energy providers according to a set of award criteria, normally based on price and quality. The current suppliers of each of these services are as follow:

• EDF (Half-Hourly electricity);
• British Gas (Non Half-Hourly electricity);
• Corona (gas); and
• various suppliers (liquid fuels).

In addition to the Home Office’s main estate, the department is also responsible for running the immigration detention estate, where energy is sourced by the centre operators from various energy providers as part of their outsourced obligations.

In 2018/19, the department emitted 30,336 t/CO2e from energy use, which represents a 58% reduction since 2009/10. This has been achieved by smarter working, building consolidations, and energy efficiency measures such as installation of LED lighting. The department is now focusing on developing a pathway to reducing its remaining emissions to net zero by 2050 or sooner.