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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when her Department will publish its plans for the decarbonisation of heating in Scotland.

In 2019, the UK government set a legally binding-target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. Meeting this target will require virtually all heat in buildings to be decarbonised, and heat in industry to be reduced to close to zero carbon emissions.

Heat policy is devolved in Scotland, but in practice the devolution arrangement is complicated, with some levers (e.g. building regulations) being fully devolved, and others (e.g. fuel standards and specifications) being fully reserved. We are working to develop policies to meet our net zero target, and the Department has committed to publishing a new heat roadmap in summer 2020. This will set out the programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions in the first half of the 2020s on how we achieve mass transition to low carbon heating. The Department will work with colleagues in the Scottish Government to ensure that the implications and impacts for Scotland are fully accounted for.