Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises can contribute to the Government’s sustainable aviation fuel targets.

There are a number of steps we are taking to support enterprises of all sizes to contribute to SAF targets. We are encouraging the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the UK through the SAF mandate, which obligates fuel suppliers to supply a proportion of SAF in their fuel. To minimise the impact on small or micro businesses from being obligated, the minimum threshold for registering with the SAF mandate scheme and being set an obligation is 15.9 terajoules of aviation fuel, or 450,000 litres, per annum. This minimises unnecessary administrative burdens with negligible impact on GHG emissions reductions.

We are supporting the production and development of UK supplies of SAF through the Advanced Fuels Fund (AFF). Applicants were invited to apply for funding in 2025 with no restriction on the size of the project. Previous rounds have supported a range of proposals from demonstration to commercial scale. The Spending Review 2025 will continue support for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the UK to 2029/30.

Our SAF Clearing House also supports SAF producers through the testing process – a grant funding window is currently open to applications.

Finally, we have introduced to Parliament the legislation required to implement a revenue certainty mechanism to support SAF producers to secure the private funding needed to construct SAF plants.