Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee

Recommendation 11

Sixth Report - Hydrogen and carbon capture in Scotland Published 10 Mar 2023 Paragraph 54 Addressed to Scotland Office
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that the UK Government accelerates the deployment of carbon capture and storage in Scotland and sets out, in its response to this report, how it intends to do so. Furthermore, in Minister Stuart’s response, he stated that the Scottish Cluster project had already received “£40 million plus”. The UK Government should provide details of how precisely they have funded the Scottish Cluster so far. We hope that the UK Government provides details for funding for the Acorn Project in the upcoming Budget.

From: Scottish Affairs Committee, Sixth Report - Hydrogen and carbon capture in Scotland (HC 83), paragraph 54, 10 March 2023

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 8 June 2023 (deadline 1 June 2023).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government agrees that the UK and Scottish Governments have clear hydrogen strategies and that close joint working matters on exports, while setting out its own delivery plans and declining to comment on recommendations addressed to the Scottish Government on devolved matters.

  • On targets, the government calls up to 10GW of low carbon hydrogen by 2030, "subject to affordability and value for money", "a stretching but deliverable ambition". It says the Scottish 5GW ambition "does not have a formal relationship" to the UK-wide figure.
  • It commits to a hydrogen production delivery roadmap, "to be published by the end of the year", and plans a second electrolytic allocation round "later in 2023".
  • On carbon capture, it describes CCUS as "a priority" and says it intends to "provide an update on next steps for Track-2 in the summer". It reports over £40m of development funding allocated to the Scottish cluster.
  • On hydrogen storage, it commits to designing a storage business model "by 2025". On hydrogen-ready boilers, it is analysing consultation responses on a 2026 requirement and "will issue the Government response in due course".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error