Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the regulatory challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises involved in the development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuel, and what plans they have to simplify relevant processes.

There are a number of steps we are taking to support enterprises of all sizes to contribute to SAF targets. We aim to minimise regulatory burdens when designing our policies.

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.

In addition to providing grant funding under the AFF, our SAF Bill currently before the House, will deliver a SAF Revenue Certainty Mechanism. This mechanism will help unlock investment in UK SAF production and grow this emerging sector.

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

We keep our policies under review to ensure they are not creating unnecessary regulatory burdens.