Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Recommendation 2
Ninth Report - Revised (Draft) National Policy Statement for Energy
Published 25 Feb 2022
Paragraph 24
Addressed to Department for Business and Trade
Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee Energy National Policy Statements All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
As currently drafted, revised (draft) EN-1 does not provide the “step change” needed to deliver the required scale of new NSIPs at a sufficiently rapid pace to deliver the Government’s net zero aims. This is largely due to ambiguity in the drafting about the relative weight of ‘climate change’ relative to local impacts to be taken into account in making planning decisions. We recommend that revised (draft) EN-1 be further amended to make the Government’s commitment to net zero more explicit and to provide a clear and unambiguous direction to the Secretary of State to prioritise the importance of climate change in decision-making.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Ninth Report - Revised (Draft) National Policy Statement for Energy (HC 1151), paragraph 24, 25 February 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 27 April 2023 (deadline 25 April 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it has accepted some of the Committee's 13 recommendations, partially accepted others and not accepted others, and is re-consulting on revised draft energy National Policy Statements following the British Energy Security Strategy.
- On hydrogen, the government "accepts the Committee's recommendation" to update draft EN-1 and EN-2 for the Hydrogen Strategy, saying EN-1 has been updated and amendments to EN-2 "are not needed". It also accepts the recommendation on fossil fuel resilience, adding a new paragraph 1.1.4 to draft EN-4.
- It does not accept the recommendation on undergrounding, saying that recommending it in draft EN-5 on resilience grounds "would be unnecessary" and "could slow the delivery of critical infrastructure".
- On a single National Policy Statement across sectors, the government "has no plans" to create one, though DLUHC "will however consider the merits and possibility of consolidating NPSs over the longer term".
- On onshore wind, the government agrees it is "an important part of the energy mix" but says local councils will remain responsible for applications. It commits to consult on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework.