PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Chemicals: Manufacturing Industries (14 November 2018)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of volatility in energy prices on the financial sustainability of the UK chemical industry.

Asked by:
Judith Cummins (Labour)

The Department has not made such an assessment. Industrial energy prices and statistics are published quarterly by BEIS, most recently in September this year and calculations on volatility can be carried out on them.

However energy prices and pricing arrangements paid by businesses in the UK chemical industry are laid out in contracts that are subject to commercial confidentiality. Moreover chemical businesses, like others, can hedge against volatility in energy costs.

The Department has not asked chemical industry businesses to provide these details about its contracts or hedging activity.

Answered by:
Lord Harrington of Watford (Non-affiliated)
22 November 2018