Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to enable grid connections for decarbonising (a) road freight vehicles, (b) shipping and (c) operations at ports and inland logistics hubs.

The Government is undertaking a range of measures to ensure electricity grid infrastructure meets future demand, including strategic energy planning and connection acceleration and reform. The Department is working across government, including with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator, and with transport stakeholders, to champion transport electricity needs. This includes sponsoring projects for support from the Government’s Connections Accelerator Service and bringing together transport and energy stakeholders in the new Electricity Infrastructure for Transport group.

In addition to transport-wide support, Government is supporting charging for freight and logistics through the £171 million Depot Charging Scheme and the planned publication of the Zero Emission HGV and Coach Infrastructure Strategy. The UK Emissions Trading Scheme’s expansion to domestic maritime and future fuel regulations for shipping will give ports more certainty on the demand for additional grid capacity as shipping begins to decarbonise.