Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what further reviews of the non-domestic scheme of the Renewable Heat Incentive tariff rates are planned before April 2016.

During engagement, stakeholders have told us that the scheme changes too frequently, and that this impacts negatively upon market certainty and makes it difficult for stakeholders to stay abreast of the many scheme changes. Therefore, we are intending to move the RHI to a programme of annual internal review, leading to an annual work plan and fewer sets of regulatory change.

However, we will monitor deployment, and may undertake reviews outside the annual programme, if necessary. The conditions under which we might undertake such reviews are set out in the Government response to our consultation entitled ‘Providing Certainty, Improving Performance', published on 27 February 2013 and available at: (paragraphs 97-100, pages 39-40):

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/128679/Gov_response_to_non_domestic_July_2012_consultation_-_26_02_2013.pdf.

On 28 February this year, due to evidence of a risk of over-compensation, we announced a review of the bio-methane injection tariff. The Biomethane Tariff Review consultation opened on 30 May and closed to responses on 27 June.