Brian Leishman

UK Export Finance’s (UKEF’s) support for the INEOS Project One plant secures new export opportunities for the UK by enabling an overseas buyer to finance the purchase of goods, services and/or intangibles from UK suppliers.

As the UK’s export credit agency, UKEF’s mission is to advance prosperity by ensuring no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, doing that sustainably and at no net cost to the taxpayer.

We intend to manage the North Sea in a way that ensures a fair, orderly and prosperous transition, with no community left behind. We have already launched Great British Energy, begun the biggest ever investment in offshore wind, and are moving ahead with new North Sea industries like carbon capture and storage and hydrogen. The UK has a highly skilled oil and gas workforce, with high transferability of skills to these new roles. We have also created the Office for Clean Energy Jobs to ensure that clean energy jobs are abundant, high-quality, fairly paid, and have good working conditions.

Petroineos is a private company – a joint venture between PetroChina and INEOS. We have worked closely with the company and with the Scottish Government to understand the financial challenges facing the Grangemouth refinery. Petroineos’ shareholders have invested more than $1.2bn since 2011 to maintain the refinery’s safe operation, recording losses in excess of $775m during the same period. The Government pushed the company to continue refining for as long as possible however the company made clear that there was no viable commercial future for the refinery operation, which it will now convert to an import terminal.

Details of Ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

It is deeply disappointing to learn that Petroineos has confirmed its previous decision to close the oil refining operation at Grangemouth. All of my thoughts are with the workers and their families and the wider Grangemouth community.

The Grangemouth site will now convert to an import terminal. Imports are already part of the UK’s diverse and resilient energy mix. Since 2013, the UK has been a net importer of refined products, with imports accounting for 51% of UK demand for all petroleum products in 2023. Grangemouth refinery already imported almost all of its crude oil supply: it only received 13% of its crude oil supply from the North Sea via the Forties Pipeline in 2022.

Scotland already imports fuel via other sites, which is sold at competitive prices, so we do not expect imports via the Grangemouth site to impact road fuel prices in Scotland nor across the UK.

Grangemouth refinery is a private business owned by Petroineos. Petroineos stated that its shareholders have invested more than $1.2bn since 2011 to maintain the refinery’s safe operation, recording losses in excess of $775m during the same period. The company made clear that there was no viable commercial future for the refinery operation at Grangemouth.

Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has the responsibility of issuing approvals for the carriage of munitions of war in civil aircraft. The CAA has not received any applications for exemption to allow civilian cargo aircraft that are destined for Israel and transporting munitions of war to overfly UK sovereign airspace.

Government officials from any country can apply for and be granted special mission certificates as part of official visits to the UK. As set out in a Written Ministerial Statement by the former Foreign Secretary dated 4 March 2013, a special mission is a temporary mission, representing a State, which is sent by one State to another with the consent of the latter, in order to carry out official engagements on behalf of the sending State. The FCDO gave consent for special mission status for the visit to the UK on 24-25 November of Lieutenant General Herzl Halevi, Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and delegation.

HMRC do not provide detailed costs related to policy changes. The costs given represent a high level cost estimate for the changes required to HMRC IT systems to deliver this policy change which follow a recognised standard methodology.

Excluding the 14 transfers of US Department of Defense owned F-35 components from RAF Marham, no F-35 components have been sent by the RAF from the UK to Israel between October 2023 and August 2024.

At the request of the US led F-35 Programme there were 14 transfers of F-35 components from RAF Marham to Israel between October 2023 and August 2024. The transferred components are the property of the US Department of Defence.

In keeping with the Government's announcement on arms exports in September, there have been no exports of F-35 parts direct to Israel via RAF Marham since the licensing suspension.

For operational security reasons and as a matter of policy, the Ministry of Defence will neither confirm, deny, nor comment on any foreign nations’ military aircraft movement or operations within UK airspace or UK overseas bases.