To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Mr Pat McFadden, on 12 October (Official Report, House of Commons, col. 1523W), what the criteria were for the £120 million funding to support development of a British-based offshore wind industry; and whether the criteria will take account of the output of existing offshore wind farms compared to their capacity, maintenance downtime and breakdown duration and costs. [HL383]

Individual grant decisions are made on a case by case basis. Each project that has been funded or will be funded has to go through the existing value for money process for government. All proposals for funding from the SIF have been appraised in line with Green Book principles, particularly to ensure that they provide good value for money in delivering longer term benefits to the UK wide economy. These value-for-money evaluations will take account of output, capacity and maintenance issues where relevant.