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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the size of the UK solar industry since 2010.

The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) published a report: The Size and Performance of the UK Low Carbon, which contains data on trends in the size of the UK low carbon economy for 2010 to 2013, including the UK solar sector. This report can be viewed online at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/416240/bis-15-206-size-and-performance-of-uk-low-carbon-economy.pdf.

The Department commissioned the Office for National Statistics to collect and publish data on trends in the low carbon and renewable energy sector, which includes the UK solar sector, in the form of their Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy Survey (LCREE) covering 2014 to 2017. This can be found online at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/bulletins/finalestimates/previousreleases.

Due to differences in methodology, drawing comparisons between data contained in the report published by BIS and data contained in the LCREE may produce misleading conclusions. Comparing estimates from 2014 with estimates from later years of the LCREE survey may also produce misleading conclusions due to changes in the sample methodology that have taken place since.