Draft Pollution Prevention and Control (Fees) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2025

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Tuesday 20th May 2025 General Committees

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Sarah Jones)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Pollution Prevention and Control (Fees) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2025.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. The draft regulations were laid before the House on 23 April. Before outlining the provisions, I will briefly provide some context. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning—OPRED—minimises the offshore sector’s impact on the environment by controlling air emissions and discharges to sea, and by reducing disturbance over the life cycle of operations, from seismic surveys through to post-decommissioning monitoring.

OPRED recoups the eligible costs of its regulatory functions from industry in the oil and gas offshore sector, to which I shall refer as the offshore sector, rather than from the taxpayer. OPRED’s recoverable costs are covered in two ways: first, by using the fees regulations; and secondly, by five charging schemes that do not require legislative change and will be amended administratively.

OPRED’s annual fees income is around £6.7 million, recovered from about 100 companies. Currently, the fees that it charges are based on hourly rates of £201 for environmental specialists and £104 for non-specialists. Environmental specialists are technical staff who carry out the functions of the Secretary of State, and non-specialists are support staff.

The current hourly rates have been in force since June 2022. Having reviewed the cost base, OPRED concluded that the existing rates need to be revised to reflect today’s costs for regulatory services. The fees regulations will therefore amend the charging provisions by increasing the hourly rate to £210 for environmental specialists and to £114 for non-specialists. OPRED’s fees are determined by adding the recorded number of hours worked per person on cost-recoverable activities and multiplying them by the hourly rates for environmental specialists and non-specialists, respectively.

The new hourly rates were approved by His Majesty’s Treasury in December 2024 and were calculated in line with the Treasury’s “Managing public money” guidance. They cover the expenditure on all resources used by OPRED to support its activities, such as staff salaries, accommodation, IT and legal services. There is no formal requirement to consult on the proposed changes. However, OPRED informed the offshore sector of the planned revisions to the hourly rates in February 2025, and no representations were received. OPRED’s fees regime guidance will be revised to reflect the new hourly rates.

I conclude by emphasising that this revision to the hourly rates will allow OPRED to recover the eligible costs of providing regulatory services from those who benefit from them, rather than passing on the costs to the taxpayer. I hope that hon. Members will support this measure, and I commend the draft fees regulations to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Jones]

Although it was unclear, I think the Opposition support these regulations. If they do, I am grateful. We do not need to replay the arguments about the dash to clean power, which is the only way to bring down our energy costs in the long term. We do not need to rehearse the fact that the North sea is a declining basin that has seen 70,000 job losses over the last few years.

[Jerome Mayhew (Broadland and Fakenham) (Con)]

Given the Government’s best case is that the UK economy will import gas, particularly from Norway, until 2050 and beyond, does the Minister not concede that, since we are going to be using gas, it would be better for our balance of payments if we produced that gas in this country, even from a declining basin?

[Sarah Jones]

Gas is still being produced in this country, and that will continue for many years to come, as the hon. Gentleman knows. We could rehearse these arguments, but I am not sure they are pertinent to these draft regulations. I will just celebrate the fact that we are now the fastest-growing economy in the G7 and that the economy, more broadly, is on the up—long may that continue. I thank the Opposition for their support for the draft regulations.

Question put and agreed to.