Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department plans to commission an independent review of the (a) carbon capture and storage programme and (b) associated cluster model ahead of the next Carbon Budget Delivery Plan.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy
Currently, we do not plan to commission an independent review into the CCUS programme. The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority provides oversight of the Programme as a Government’s Major Projects Portfolio, through Gateway Reviews and reporting. In 2024, the Programme was subject to a National Audit Office review and subsequently a Public Accounts Committee hearing. Internally, we continue to evaluate our work and to ensure we are delivering value for money to taxpayers.
We will publish a report setting out our plan to meet carbon budgets in October. This will set out the policies and proposals that will enable the UK to meet Carbon Budgets 4-6 and will reflect the role that CCUS will play in meeting these targets.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of silvopastoral systems and holistic planned grazing practices to carbon sequestration and biodiversity enhancement.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
All prospective Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme offers were assessed for their potential impact against a range of environmental and cultural services, including carbon sequestration and biodiversity indicators. The assessment was based on a combination of expert opinion and rapid evidence reviews and is now published.
In addition, we have modelled the impact of different densities and tree species suitable for silvo-pastoral systems on carbon sequestration and a limited set of species indicators. These models have given us the capability to assess the potential impact of Environmental Land Management offers.
With over 38,000 live Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements, the SFI offers a wide range of actions for the management of grassland, including herbal leys, legumes in grassland and management of grassland with very low nutrient inputs. The Sustainable Farming Incentive also includes actions for planning soil, nutrient and integrated pest management, which help farmers to choose the most appropriate practices for their farm.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press notice entitled Government to crack down on waste incinerators with stricter standards for new builds, published on 30 December 2024, what are the strict new local and environmental conditions that new waste incinerators will be required to meet.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Residual Waste Infrastructure Capacity Note and an accompanying statement, set out that the Government will only back new Energy from Waste projects which:
We are considering how to reflect in the new set of national policies for development management to be developed. The Government has consulted on revisions to the National Policy Statements that support decisions on major energy infrastructure to reflect these conditions. The consultation ran from 24 April 2025 to 29 May 2025.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 28 May to Question 53448 on Carbon Capture and Storage, (a) how the levy will be structured and (b) who will be responsible for paying it.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is a mixture of funding routes to support carbon capture and storage projects in the UK, including levies placed on energy suppliers and gas shippers.
There are two levies relevant to the CCUS programme. Firstly, the Electricity Supplier Obligation, which is placed on licensed electricity suppliers who may then pass this cost on to their consumers. This levy supports renewable and low carbon electricity production. The second is the Gas Shipper Obligation, which is intended to be an obligation placed on gas shippers to fund certain hydrogen production projects. The Government has recently consulted on the design of the Gas Shipper Obligation and design considerations are ongoing.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to support (a) scientific innovation and (b) R&D across the hydrogen value chain to (i) drive down costs and (ii) improve efficiency.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy
Since 2021, the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio has awarded around £170m to hydrogen innovation projects to advance low-carbon technologies across the hydrogen value chain. Hydrogen-specific programmes include: the Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 programme, the Industrial Hydrogen Accelerator, and the Hydrogen from Biomass with Carbon Capture and Storage programme. Demonstrators have been built and tested with the aim of reducing the costs of hydrogen production, or providing evidence towards the cost effectiveness of hydrogen for fuel switching. The Department commissioned the British Geological Survey to conduct a research study on the geological potential for natural hydrogen in the UK.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 28 May to Question to 53448 on Carbon Capture and Storage, how the the funding models will be evaluated to ensure value for money.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Detailed and robust Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plans have been developed for the various CCUS funding models. The M&E plans map out the evaluation activities, methodology, data sources and resource needed for the various types of evaluations, including value-for-money (VfM) assessments. The VfM assessments across the CCUS programme will assess the extent to which public funds were used in the most cost-effective way possible to deliver results. Robust VfM evaluation methodologies that are relevant and suitable for the CCUS programme will be used, including Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and the National Audit Office 4Es VfM approach, to allow a rigorous and systematic analysis of the costs and benefits. These methods will demonstrate VfM by evaluating whether the CCUS programme is cost-effective, impactful, and equitable.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 28 May to Question 53448 on Carbon Capture and Storage, what steps his Department is taking to safeguard against over-subsidisation of specific (a) projects and (b) technologies.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The CCUS Cluster Sequencing Process, which is the selection of the initial carbon dioxide transport & storage networks and projects, and the CCUS business models, under which individual awards for projects are made, have been developed to align with the UK subsidy control regime as per the Subsidy Control Act 2022 and are subject to mandatory referral to the Subsidy Advice Unit, part of the Competition Markets Authority. These business models support the development of transport and storage CO2 networks, as well as the deployment of CCUS in the power, industrial and hydrogen sectors.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department is taking steps with (a) industry and (b) investors to help de-risk investment in green hydrogen (i) infrastructure and (ii) projects.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Hydrogen transport and storage (T&S) infrastructure will be critical to the development of the hydrogen economy and to meeting government’s net zero and climate budget goals.
To facilitate the development of this critical infrastructure, we are committed to designing new business models for hydrogen transport and storage by the end of 2025.
The Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM) incentivises investment in new low carbon hydrogen production and encourages users to switch to low carbon hydrogen by making it a price competitive decarbonisation option. HPBM support is being allocated through the Hydrogen Allocation Rounds (HARs) and the Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) Cluster Sequencing programme.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he is taking steps with the Secretary of State for Transport to ensure green energy projects have access to CO2 storage.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The recent final investment decisions with the East Coast Cluster and Liverpool Bay CCS are the first steps in unlocking necessary CO2 storage requirements needed to deliver our carbon budgets.
The Department continues to work with key regulatory and industry partners so that the capacity needed to store CO2 is accessible to green energy projects, such as cement decarbonisation or sustainable aviation fuels.
The Government also recognises that non-pipeline methods of CO2 transportation (for example, road, rail, barge and ship) will be required where it is not feasible to connect to a store via pipeline.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made with their plans to develop carbon capture and storage projects.
Answered by Baroness Curran
The East Coast Cluster reached financial close in December 2024 and the HyNet Transport and Storage Network, operated by Liverpool Bay CCS, reached financial close in April 2025, with Government signing contracts with industry to get the first CCUS projects up and running. These two clusters will help remove up to 8.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year and are due to start operating from 2028.
Officials have continued to engage with Track-2 clusters to understand their plans. We recognise industry will be hoping for clarity on Track-2 - and future CCUS clusters – and further details will be provided in due course.