Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on the research and development of (a) hydrogen fuel and (b) other alternative fuels to petrol and diesel.

Research and development funding for hydrogen focusses on demonstrating proven applications at scale and driving innovation. The Department for Transport supports the Tees Valley Hydrogen Transport Hub, which is co-locating hydrogen supply and demand across proven road, maritime and aviation applications. The Department’s £200m zero emission HGV demonstrator programme will deploy hundreds of vehicles onto UK roads.

In addition, the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE), Advanced Fuels Fund (including Sustainable Aviation Fuels), Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure project and First of a Kind funding in rail continue to support the development of innovative transport solutions here in the UK.

The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation now includes a higher value “development fuel” target and synthetic “drop-in” alternatives to fossil petrol and diesel fuels, such as e-fuels “are eligible for this support when supplied in the UK.