The key recommendations from the Contrail Impact Mitigation (CIM) Task and Finish Group report were for Government to support large-scale trials and help establish a permanent governance body to oversee trial activity and standardise procedures and activities related to contrail avoidance.

In January 2026, we announced up to £43m of funding for green aviation projects, which includes funding for a contrail avoidance trial. We are currently engaging with relevant stakeholders on how a trial could be delivered and will provide further updates in due course.

The Department is in the process of carefully considering the other CIM report recommendations, including whether and how a permanent governance body on aviation’s non-CO2 impacts should be established.

The UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) research and development programme funds a range of interventions that develop clean maritime technologies across the Technological Readiness Level scale. In September 2025 this Government announced it would invest a further £448 million between 2026-2030 into clean maritime technologies.

In March 2026 this Government launched the £121 million Round 7 of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) and £150 million Round 2 of the Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure (ZEVI) competition. We also allocated £1.25m from the UK SHORE programme to another round of Transport Research and Innovation Grant (TRIG) which UK SHORE is supporting with £1.25 million this financial year. We intend to launch two further rounds of CMDC ahead of 2030. This on top of the over £270 million invested between 2021 to 2025. Roughly £169 million went towards six Rounds of CMDC, £93 million to the first Round of ZEVI, £7.7 million to the Smart Shipping Acceleration Fund, £1.5 million to support the TRIG, and £3.7 million to the Clean Maritime Research Hub.

The Airspace Modernisation Strategy supports the aviation sector in reducing emissions through aircraft flying more direct routes.

Contrails arise from a combination of jet fuel combustion, air particles, water vapour and atmospheric conditions, and as such are considered through the Department’s work with the sector via the Jet Zero Strategy and Taskforce, which look at aviation decarbonisation holistically.

The Government is not planning to re-open the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator to new applications.

On 25 March, Government announced £1 billion in funding to support the rollout of zero emission HGVs up to 2030, including the Zero Emission Truck and Van grants and the Depot Charging Scheme.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes estimates of UK greenhouse gas emissions annually. The most recent accredited official statistics cover the period 1990 to 2023 and are available online as part of the UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions statistics.

All spending allocations were agreed as part of the Spending Review process to deliver Departmental priorities, including road maintenance, HGV parking and freight infrastructure, alongside specific commitments that would support delivery of net zero. This approach ensured that investment in net zero was considered alongside, not at the expense of, other essential priorities.

The Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (R&D) programme had a total programme funding spend of approximately £106 million in the 2024-25 financial year. We are unable to confirm the spend for 2025-26 as the financial year is still in progress with projects placing orders for final zero emission HGVs and infrastructure sites.

The Government’s annual publication titled ‘Energy and Emissions Projections’ (EEP) provides estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions out to 2050 after accounting for policies that have been implemented and planned policies where the level of funding has been agreed, and the policy design is near final. For transport, this includes GHG emissions estimates for domestic transport and international aviation and shipping. The latest publication can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-and-emissions-projections-2023-to-2050.

The Government’s Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan (CBGDP) was published on 29 October 2025. EEP estimates provided the basis for the emissions baseline in the CBGDP, but some modelling adjustments were made to better align the EEP with sectoral modelling. This approach is explained in the CBGDP Technical Annex, at paragraphs 20 to 21: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6901dfae71b575684c3cf78a/carbon-budget-and-growth-delivery-plan-technical-annex.pdf

The CBGDP published estimates of the impact of transport policies and proposals on GHG emissions between now and the end of the Carbon Budget 6 period in 2037. This includes transport policies captured in the EEP, and modelled proposals and policies. Estimates of transport policies’ impact on GHG emissions are included in Table 3 and Table 4 of the CBGDP: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6901d0c2a6048928d3fc2b55/carbon-budget-and-growth-delivery-plan-report.pdf

Transport was estimated to emit 111.8MtCO2e (megatonnes carbon dioxide equivalent) in 2023, with 78.1MtCO2e from cars and vans. The ZEV Mandate came into force in 2024; it requires that, by 2030, 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans should be fully zero emission. In 2024, the Government estimated that this policy would deliver 420MtCO2e of savings by 2050, averaging a reduction of 5.8MtCO2e between 2028 and 2032 and 15.8MtCO2e between 2033 and 2037. The emission savings estimates have been slightly reduced by the flexibilities announced in April but by less than 3% overall.

More needs to be done to ensure that UK haulage companies can switch to zero emission HGVs (battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell). This is particularly true as most UK haulage companies are SMEs and operate on small profit margins. As more zero emission HGVs are deployed, the costs of these HGVs should begin to fall due to economies of scale in manufacturing, which when combined with running and maintenance savings, should reduce the total cost of ownership and support a second-hand market.

We are supporting UK haulage companies while seeking to minimise the impact of the transition on costs and delivery prices through programmes such as the Plug in Truck Grant, the £30m Depot Charging Scheme and the up to £200m Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator.

We will shortly be consulting on options for the end of sales dates for new non-zero emission HGVs and will continue to support UK hauliers with appropriate incentives and clear regulatory approach.

The Department for Transport’s budget for day-to-day spending until 2028-2029, and until 2029-2030 for capital investment was set in June’s Spending Review. Delivering greener, safer and healthier transport to support the Government’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050 while driving economic growth is a Departmental priority that we will deliver through a range of spend and non-spend measures. We are accelerating the transformation of existing industries, such as our automotive and maritime sectors, and supporting the growth of nascent industries here in the UK, such as sustainable aviation fuel.

The Government has committed up to £200 million to the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) to deploy zero emission HGVs and their associated recharging and refuelling sites, most of which will be delivered by March 2026. ZEHID is making good progress with 295 of a possible 319 zero emission HGVs ordered to date (86 already delivered and in use by haulage companies) and 73 planned infrastructure locations (14 already operational). A few HGVs and infrastructure sites may be operational slightly after March 2026 and this is being carefully managed by Innovate UK, our delivery partner.

All project spend is forecast to be complete by the end of the current financial year (March 2026), and while there has been some underspend against the project’s original budget, this was due to changes initiated by projects themselves as they refined approaches following original bids submitted in 2022.

While ZEHID has been operational, there has been a measurable increase in zero emission HGVs, going from 478 when ZEHID launched in late 2022 to 1,158 in June 2025.

None. This is a devolved matter and, as such, a decision for the Scottish Government.

I have recently met UK bus manufacturers to understand how the UK Government can support the transport sector.

Under the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (England) Regulations 2002, local authorities already have powers to enforce anti-idling laws and issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to drivers leaving engines running unnecessarily.

The enforcement powers available to tackle vehicle idling are available to all local authorities, regardless of whether or not they have an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA). It is vital that these powers are used to help deal with local air quality issues where necessary and there are no plans to review these powers.

Within AQMAs, designated local authorities also have powers to carry out roadside testing of vehicle emissions to reduce pollution from road traffic. They can do this where any part of the area is designated as an AQMA in accordance with the legislation. The local authority must apply to the Secretary of State for Transport to be a designated local authority.

Since these powers became available, vehicle technology has moved on significantly. Newer technologies can play a part in addressing idling emissions, such as stop-start technology and low- or -zero-emission vehicles.