Scottish Government Response to British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme: Consultation on Regulatory Changes and Scheme Delivery

Rationale for the consultation

The UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy announced the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) to address high industrial electricity costs impacting British manufacturing competitiveness. The scheme targets manufacturing frontier industries within the Industrial Strategy’s growth sectors (IS-8) and manufacturing foundational industries which provide key inputs to the frontier industries. The scheme will exempt eligible businesses from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation (RO) and Renewables Obligation Scotland (ROS), Feed-in Tariffs (FIT), and the Capacity Market (CM). Following a UK-wide consultation on the approach to and eligibility for the scheme (published last November), UKG launched a second consultation on BICS scheme delivery on 16 April. As decisions on the operation and eligibility of BICS – including FIT and CM – are reserved to Westminster, a separate consultation was launched by the Scottish Government which sought views on the regulatory changes required for ROS only.