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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to facilitate a pilot for hydrogen-based steelmaking in the UK.

We are working closely with the UK Steel Council to explore decarbonisation pathways – including electric arc, industrial carbon capture equipment attached to existing blast furnaces, or other emerging technologies, such as hydrogen. The ideal decarbonisation pathway for individual sites is based on multiple factors and the Government is working closely with companies to support them as they make commercial decisions on the optimum route.

We have set up the Industrial Decarbonisation and Hydrogen Revenue Support (IDHRS) scheme to fund our new hydrogen and industrial carbon capture business models. We will be providing up to £140 million of taxpayer funds will be made available to establish the scheme, including up to £100 million to award contracts of up to 250MW of electrolytic hydrogen production capacity in 2023 with further allocation in 2024. The scheme will be open to businesses across industry, including steel companies.