The Energy Skills Passport was initially envisaged to enable the transition of workers between offshore oil and gas and offshore wind, but is now planned to be applicable to workers in emerging sectors such as Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage and hydrogen.

The mapping of technical qualifications between the oil and gas and offshore wind sectors has been completed, and work is underway with representatives from emerging energy sectors to explore the mutual recognition of training to support the transition of offshore oil and gas workers.

The off-payroll working rules (commonly known as IR35) have been in place for over twenty years and are designed to ensure that individuals working like employees but through their own company, usually a personal service company (PSC), pay broadly the same Income Tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) as those who are directly employed.

However, non-compliance with these rules was widespread. It is estimated that this non-compliance in the private and voluntary sectors would cost the Exchequer £1.3 billion per year by 2023/24 if not addressed, denying the taxpayer significant funding for public services. This is not a new tax; the reform will improve compliance with existing rules by moving the responsibility for determining whether the off-payroll working rules apply from the individual's company to the client engaging them.

The Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) published at Spring Budget 2021 sets out that nationally, the reform of the off-payroll working rules is expected to affect about 180,000 individuals across all sectors outside the public sector who are working through their own companies, and who would be employed if engaged directly. No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact on offshore energy workers.

The TIIN can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/off-payroll-working-rules-from-april-2021/off-payroll-working-rules-from-april-2021.

Falling within the off-payroll working tax rules does not change an individual's status for employment rights; there are separate legal frameworks for determining employment status for tax and for rights, with no direct link between the two.

The Government published its response to ‘Contracts for Difference (CfD): proposed amendments to the scheme 2020’ on 24 November 2020. The Government will publish responses to ‘CfD: changes to Supply Chain Plans and the CfD contract’ and ‘CfD for low carbon electricity generation: new Supply Chain Plan questionnaire’ shortly. The Government has discussed and will continue to discuss these policy changes with representatives of the Low Carbon Contracts Company. The Government responses and guidance on supply chain plans will be published ahead of the commencement of the Contracts for Difference Fourth Allocation Round to ensure that stakeholders have time to review policy changes before submitting applications.

Our focus has been on getting places to send us their bids and proposals, rather than second-guessing what they will do. The government will continue to work with successful bidders to help them achieve their objectives, across a variety of sectors.

The government is currently engaging with the oil and gas industry on the North Sea Transition Deal. The Deal is a manifesto commitment and will support jobs and net zero as the industry decarbonises and diversifies to cleaner energies.

The UK is a major global market for renewables, and we have world-leading ambitions for deployment. We aim to deliver up to double the renewable capacity at the next contracts for difference round at the end of this year, compared with the last round. We are spending £160 million to support new port and manufacturing infrastructure needed to achieve our 40 GW offshore wind ambition, which will secure local jobs and benefits.

We have ambitious targets for future decarbonisation and the systems that will go with it. We will be publishing an industrial decarbonisation strategy in the very near future, which will help to support businesses as we look at all the issues that the hon. Gentleman raises.

As set out in our Clean Maritime Plan, we are considering whether and how the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) could be used to encourage the uptake of low carbon fuels in maritime. We plan to consult soon on this policy as part of a wider consultation on potential changes to the RTFO scheme.

The workforce engagement commitment made for Helping Great Britain Work Well (HGBWW) was made by Step Change in Safety through their Workforce Engagement Support Team (WEST). The commitment is to deliver improved training and understanding of the Elected Safety Representative role and functions. This is to be delivered through a new 4 staged approach to training:

1. Introduction to the Safety Rep role: “what good looks like for ESRs”, information to workers, supervisors, OIMs & Duty Holders/Employers

2. OPITO Training Review

3. Delivering Functions & Logbook

4. Further development and sharing experiences with new ESRs.

The OPITO Training Review (ii) has been completed. The three other stages require some further input from Step Change in Safety.

The renewable energy industry made a number of commitments to HSE as part of HGBWW. This included one from the G+ Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Association (G+) (whose membership includes the majority of offshore wind farm operators and developers) to ensure the delivery of commitments the industry made at a HSE hosted event in November 2015. This included to provide the leadership to ensure that all the industry supply chain was fully engaged in developing and implementing industry good practice. It also included the provision of significant resource, including the appointment of dedicated full time staff to ensure a risk reduction programme was delivered:

https://www.gplusoffshorewind.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/234778/G9_response-to-HSE-Bootle-workshop_Apr2016_FINAL-signed.pdf

On the 26 April 2018, HSE and G+ co-hosted an event with 56 industry leaders which concluded that good progress had been made with further work required to further improve engagement with the supply chain and amend the risk reduction programme to ensure new challenges are dealt with.

Other commitments met include Renewable UK’s development and delivery of guidance for emergency planning for the renewable energy sector which can be found at http://www.renewableuk.com/page/OREEF.

The UK is using its influence as a major shareholder to encourage the World Bank to prioritise renewable energy where this is part of a country’s least cost expansion plan, including support for clean cooking where relevant. We do so through our interventions in board discussions of the Climate Change Action Plan, the forward pipeline of projects in a country, and the design of specific projects.

We are also funding the World Bank to help developing countries with energy policy development and project implementation.

Between 2011 and 2016, UK aid provided 12 million people with improved access to clean energy, including through off-grid renewable energy and other clean technologies like more efficient cook stoves. This is enabling businesses to be more productive, children to study after school and keeping women and girls safer after dark.

While DFID funding to energy technologies is informed by the needs of individual countries, the Department retains a strong preference in its bilateral programmes for clean energy solutions. This is consistent with UK leadership internationally, including through the £5.8bn commitment (2016 - 2021) for tackling climate change.

Between 2011 and 2016, UK Aid provided 12 million people with improved access to clean energy and installed more than 400 MW of clean energy capacity.

DFID funding for renewable energy is through bilateral programmes and contributions to multilateral funds, multilateral development banks and climate-specific funds such as the Climate Investment Funds (https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/projects/GB-1-200368) where there are significant renewable energy ambitions. Renewable energy programme spend for the previous 5 years is publically available through DevTracker.

Between 2011 and 2016, UK Aid provided 12 million people with improved access to clean energy and installed more than 400 MW of clean energy capacity, of which a significant number are in Africa.

DFID funding for renewable energy is through bilateral programmes and contributions to multilateral funds, multilateral development banks and climate-specific funds such as the Climate Investment Funds (https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/projects/GB-1-200368) where there are significant renewable energy ambitions. African renewable energy programme spend for the previous 5 years is publically available through DevTracker.

Part of the purpose of the feed-in tariff (FIT) review consultation was to gather views on the broader economic impact of the proposed changes. We also sought views on whether the scheme should be focussed towards specific groups or sectors which might, for example, include households or communities. We had a strong response from community energy groups via the consultation and workshops.

The actual impact on the community sector will depend on the options taken forward after all responses to the consultation have been considered. We are currently analysing feedback submitted during the consultation and intend to publish a Government response as soon as possible.

The purpose of the tax-advantaged venture capital schemes is to provide funding to smaller higher-risk companies that would otherwise struggle to access finance to develop and grow. To ensure that the schemes are well targeted and deliver value for money, the government announced at the Autumn Statement the exclusion of all remaining energy generation activities from the schemes. This follows the exclusion of certain types of energy generation in 2012, 2014 and 2015, including most recently the announcement that the provision of reserve energy generating capacity and the generation of renewable energy benefiting from other government support by community energy organisations would be excluded from the schemes with effect from 30^th November 2015, as well as from Social Investment Tax Relief when that scheme is expanded. These changes help to ensure that higher risk investments are not crowded out by lower risk investments.

We will continue to work with the community energy sector over the coming months to develop a joint approach that addresses the priorities of the sector and satisfies our overarching objective of cost-effective emissions reductions.