Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will commission a working group to consider advances in cable ploughing technology before publishing a new EN-5 Electricity Networks National Policy Statement.

The Government sets the rules for a robust and independent planning process. The design and development of energy transmission infrastructure, including which technology would be used for construction of a project, is a matter for the developer, with the implications of that choice considered through the planning process. The Government carried out a full public consultation on its National Policy Statements - including EN-5 - earlier this year and will shortly be publishing them and laying them before Parliament ahead of designation.