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 the potential impact of any plans to amend its biomass sustainability criteria in the forthcoming Biomass Strategy.

The Government issued a call for evidence in 2021 (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/role-of-biomass-in-achieving-net-zero-call-for-evidence) to seek stakeholder views and evidence on a range of biomass-related questions. This included potential improvements to the biomass sustainability criteria. The responses to the call for evidence, alongside feedback from extensive stakeholder engagement, are feeding into recommendations for further strengthening of the UK’s already stringent biomass sustainability criteria, which we will set out in the forthcoming Biomass Strategy.