Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the likely pass-through of increased SAF compliance costs to consumers and the potential impact on (a) average UK air fares and (b) holiday package prices.
We recognise the need to protect consumers from excessive costs and have factored this into the design of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate.
We continually monitor the market, and, alongside the option of buy-out, the Mandate has a built-in review process every five years so the Government can take action if necessary.
An assessment of domestic production was conducted as part of the SAF Mandate cost-benefit analysis. To support domestic SAF production the Department is introducing a Revenue Certainty Mechanism through the SAF Act and has allocated over £198m through the Advanced Fuels Fund between 2022 and 2026. The Spending Review 2025 has extended support for UK SAF production through to 2029/30, and details of this funding will be announced in the coming months.
Further assessment of the costs of SAF policies and the impact on air fares was conducted as part of the published SAF Mandate cost-benefit analysis and the Revenue Certainty Mechanism cost-benefit analysis.