Delivery plan for designing and implementing a revenue certainty mechanism for SAF
Published 4 September 2023
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How a revenue certainty mechanism for SAF could be delivered by the end of 2026
The government has tabled an amendment to the Energy Bill on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). This places a statutory duty to publish a consultation on the options for designing and implementing a revenue certainty scheme for SAF within 6 months of royal assent of the Energy Bill.
This plan outlines how a revenue certainty mechanism for SAF could be delivered by the end of 2026, subject to Parliamentary time.
It has been published in tandem with a written ministerial statement, which commits the government to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism to support SAF production in the UK. The intention is that such a mechanism will be industry funded.
Significant milestones
Figure 1 is an approximate timeline for each milestone to deliver a revenue certainty mechanism by 2026. These timings assume that royal assent of the Energy Bill will be confirmed by 31 October 2023.
Figure 1: Estimated indicative timeline
As shown in Figure 1, the most significant milestones are as follows:
Consult on the delivery of revenue certainty options to support UK SAF production
This will include:
- policy development of revenue certainty options including impact analysis and detailed design
- 3 months to write and launch the consultation
- a consultation period of 2 to 3 months
Government response
Once the consultation period has concluded, analysis and consideration of the responses to formulate and publish a government response could take a further 6 to 12 months.
Report to Parliament on progress
The government amendment to the Energy Bill includes a statutory duty to lay before Parliament a report on progress made towards the development of a SAF revenue certainty mechanism.
Legislative process
Once the policy development process has taken place, the government will need to secure the appropriate legislation to implement a mechanism and draft regulations. Legislating could take a further 12 to 24 months.
Delivery
Depending on the delivery model, this could take place in parallel – or may need to take place following any legislation – and would involve establishing a body to deliver the revenue certainty mechanism. This could take 12 to 24 months.
Assumptions
This timeline assumes only one consultation is required. It is possible that more than one consultation will be required to develop the full scope of the revenue certainty mechanism. This may add an additional 8 months to the timeline.