Each day we are publishing a blog on one of the policies from our Spending Plan. Click here to read the previous policy. 

Department for Energy and Climate Change could be scrapped with several of its functions moving into other departments. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority should move into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as along with the expense of decommissioning Sellafield, which accounts for a large proportion of DECC expenditure. Likewise, the Office for Nuclear Development and Carbon Budget Programme should also move with them. The Global Threat Reduction and nuclear security programmes, meanwhile, could move into the Home Office. 

But some functions should be abolished. The Official Development Assistance is a form of aid and should go. However, the expenditure for this is already accounted for in the proposal to scrap development aid and therefore is excluded from our savings calculations for abolishing DECC. The fuel poverty programme should also be scrapped. As the government spends less, there could be cuts in fuel duties which would reduce fuel poverty. The green deal should be scrapped as it is not the purpose of the government to lend to individuals for home improvements. The innovation programme is unnecessary. Private finance sources should be left to carry out its functions without taxpayers being told to fund or underwrite them. The renewable heat incentive would be removed as it subsidises uneconomical energy sources. Funding for the energy and markets reform programme should be scrapped, as its stated aim is to ensure supply and affordability. The carbon capture and storage programme which works with the private sector to develop capture technologies should be funded privately, too. The community energy savings programme has been closed but still has costs over £2 million.

The “heat and other programmes” expenditure should also be scrapped. These measures would save over £320 million rising to over £380 million in 2020–21.