Background Note
3.CCL was introduced in 2001 and is a UK wide tax on the supply of electricity, gas, solid fuel and liquefied gases used for fuel purposes by business and the public sector.
4.The purpose of the CCL is to encourage the efficient use of energy and the use of renewable energy, in order to help meet the UK’s international and domestic targets for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases.
5.CCAs were introduced alongside the levy and entitle participating facilities to pay a reduced rate of levy in return for meeting challenging targets for improving energy efficiency or reducing emissions.
6.The reduced rate of CCL, which is claimed by facilities in the climate change agreements scheme, is a State aid. Section 67 of this Act amends the level of CCL discount for facilities participating in the scheme from 1 April 2011. Doing so enables the UK to renew its State aid approval for the CCA scheme using the simplified procedure for State aid clearance provided for by Commission Regulation (EC) No 800/2008. Article 3(1) of that Regulation requires the aid scheme to contain an express reference to the Regulation.
