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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect on costs to the electricity system of limitations of the number of operating hours permitted for back-up electricity generation plants.

Defra will consult later this year on options which will include legislation that would set binding emission limit values on relevant air pollutants from diesel engines. As part of this process Defra will assess the impacts of any policy options it proposes to take forward, and will work with DECC to understand any implications this may have for the electricity system.