The information requested can only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

HM Revenue & Customs assess all contacts made and a decision is made as to the appropriate course of action.

The Department has recently tendered a research contract to assess the plausibility of scenarios in the report with the highest potential net greenhouse gas emissions occurring in the period to 2030 that result from increased demand from the UK biomass electricity sector.

DECC is committed to supporting sustainably produced biomass, that delivers real greenhouse gas savings, is cost effective, takes account of wider impacts across the economy and manages possible risks such as to food security and biodiversity. The Department is seeking to bring forward proposals for mandatory sustainability requirements this year. The UK has been at the forefront of developing criteria to ensure that biomass used in energy generation is sustainable and we will have some of the toughest sustainability criteria in the world.

Biomass is an important part of the UK’s energy mix, playing a central, transitional role in decarbonising the electricity grid. Our support for biomass is part of our wider ambition for a mix of renewable energy sources. Our 2012 Bioenergy Strategy analysis indicated that sustainably-sourced bioenergy could contribute 8-11% to the UK’s total primary energy demand by 2020.

The right hon. Lady will understand my hesitation when I say that we have to take the Scottish Government at their word. They assure us that they are ready and we have done everything within our power to assist them. If it should transpire that there are further difficulties that have not yet been foreseen or disclosed, we will do everything that we can to ensure that the system operates.

As part of the Scotland Act 2012 implementation process, UK Government Ministers have been in contact with Scottish Government Ministers to discuss devolved taxes, including property taxes, since the beginning of this year.

The right hon. Lady is quite right to raise that as an issue to be considered. There is no evidence at the moment to suggest that what she is worried about is happening. In addition, part of our support for the reconstruction mechanism has been to fund a monitoring process so that the right checks can be made to avoid such things happening.

We are supporting the temporary Gaza reconstruction mechanism to facilitate the import of construction materials into Gaza. Almost 40,000 people have now been able to buy materials to repair their homes. There is still a lot more to do, but the mechanism is a step in the right direction.

As it happens, I can, because the item was on the agenda at the European Foreign Affairs Council yesterday, when there was an update report on the work programme that was agreed at Lima. My French colleague reported on the progress that is being made. The French are confident that we are making good progress towards a substantive agreement in Paris later this year. EU colleagues agreed that we should continue to lobby the countries that are perhaps considered to be back-markers; and, in particular, that European Union countries should seek to exert as much pressure as possible on China and the United States, both of which appear now to be in a good place on this agenda. We need to make sure that they stay there.

The Government has acted to provide relief for energy intensive industries and is targeting its limited resources at those energy intensive products that are exposed to competition in the international markets.

However, we are bound by the European Commission’s state aid rules in this regard and cannot, therefore, simply use climate change agreements as the basis for eligibility for these schemes.

We have issued a consultation on a proposed methodology and are currently analysing the results. We expect to publish a Government response to the consultation shortly and final conclusions on which sectors will be eligible once we have state aid approval, which we expect to receive by summer 2015.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her in my capacity as Minister of State for Business, Enterprise and Energy on 7 January 2015 to Question 219138:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2014-12-17/219138/.

The Government is committed to providing relief from the indirect costs of renewables to the most electricity intensive industries that operate in global markets. We are bound by the European Commission’s state aid rules in this regard and cannot, therefore, simply use climate change agreements as the basis for eligibility for these schemes. We have issued a consultation on a proposed methodology and are currently analysing the results. We expect to publish a Government response to the consultation early in the New Year and final conclusions on which sectors will be eligible once we have state aid approval which we expect to receive by summer 2015.

The saw-milling sector was not included in the proposed eligibility list because, based on the data available, it does not pass the proposed UK sector-level test of requiring an electricity-intensity of at least 7%. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills officials are content to discuss this with the association further in the New Year.

It is worth noting that the Government has already increased the discount on the Climate Change Levy on electricity to 90% for those sectors, like sawmilling, that are in receipt of a climate change agreement and that we are also capping the cost of the Carbon Price Floor at £18 per ton of CO2 – 60% of the original 2020 target price – to reduce the indirect cost to industry.

The Government is committed to providing relief from the indirect costs of renewables to the most electricity intensive industries that operate in global markets. We are bound by the European Commission’s state aid rules in this regard and cannot, therefore, simply use climate change agreements as the basis for eligibility for these schemes. We have issued a consultation on a proposed methodology and are currently analysing the results. We expect to publish a Government response to the consultation early in the New Year and final conclusions on which sectors will be eligible once we have state aid approval which we expect to receive by summer 2015.

The saw-milling sector was not included in the proposed eligibility list because, based on the data available, it does not pass the proposed UK sector-level test of requiring an electricity-intensity of at least 7%. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills officials are content to discuss this with the association further in the New Year.

It is worth noting that the Government has already increased the discount on the Climate Change Levy on electricity to 90% for those sectors, like sawmilling, that are in receipt of a climate change agreement and that we are also capping the cost of the Carbon Price Floor at £18 per ton of CO2 – 60% of the original 2020 target price – to reduce the indirect cost to industry.

The Government is committed to providing relief from the indirect costs of renewables to the most electricity intensive industries that operate in global markets. We are bound by the European Commission’s state aid rules in this regard and cannot, therefore, simply use climate change agreements as the basis for eligibility for these schemes. We have issued a consultation on a proposed methodology and are currently analysing the results. We expect to publish a Government response to the consultation early in the New Year and final conclusions on which sectors will be eligible once we have state aid approval which we expect to receive by summer 2015.

The saw-milling sector was not included in the proposed eligibility list because, based on the data available, it does not pass the proposed UK sector-level test of requiring an electricity-intensity of at least 7%. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills officials are content to discuss this with the association further in the New Year.

It is worth noting that the Government has already increased the discount on the Climate Change Levy on electricity to 90% for those sectors, like sawmilling, that are in receipt of a climate change agreement and that we are also capping the cost of the Carbon Price Floor at £18 per ton of CO2 – 60% of the original 2020 target price – to reduce the indirect cost to industry.

First, I congratulate the right hon. Lady on her honour—I am sure I do so on behalf of the whole House. I hope she will understand a rather simple distinction between our pride in the things that we have done in this coalition Government—taking people out of tax, expanding apprenticeships on a scale never done before, giving healthy meals at lunchtime to children, providing two, three and four-year-olds with more child care and pre-school support than ever before, and revolutionising our pension system so that the state pension is provided at a decent rate—and the disagreements about the future that of course political parties have, whether in coalition or not. I disagree with the Labour party’s mañana, mañana approach to never really dealing with the deficit, and with the Conservative party’s approach of carrying on with cuts even after the deficit has been dealt with. That is a perfectly reasonable disagreement about the future that we will all argue about over the next four or five months.

The Renewables Obligation (RO) places an obligation on UK electricity suppliers to source a specified proportion of the electricity they supply to customers from renewable sources. This proportion – called ‘the Obligation’ – is set each year by government in line with legislation. The scheme is administered by Ofgem, who issue Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) to generators in relation to the renewable electricity they generate. Further details of how the scheme operates can be found on Ofgem’s website:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/renewables-obligation-ro?page=1#block-views-publications-and-updates-block.

It is assumed that the cost of the RO to suppliers is passed on to consumers through their energy bills. The total cost that can be levied on consumers through the RO is controlled through DECC’s Levy Control Framework.

First, I would like to place on record my congratulations to Nicola Sturgeon on her recent election as Scotland’s First Minister. I spoke to her on the evening of her election and made the point that Her Majesty’s Government here look forward to working with her and her colleagues in the way I believe the people of Scotland would want.

I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues on a range of issues affecting Scotland, including shipbuilding on the Clyde, most recently last week with my right hon. colleague the Secretary of State for Defence, during which he reiterated his recent public statement underlining that complex UK warships are built only in UK shipyards. He plans to visit the Clyde again shortly.

I congratulate the right hon. Lady on finding nuance where absolutely none was intended. The First Sea Lord will, of course, speak for himself, but she will be aware that questions of contract are down to Ministers in the Ministry of Defence, and she will no doubt have seen, as other Members did, the comments of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence on Monday making it very clear that that is where the orders will go.