Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of market speculation on rising food and oil and gas prices.

Increases in international food commodity prices have been driven by a range of factors recently. The Government views the price changes to food have been caused primarily by market fundamentals rather than speculation on futures markets.

Fuel and gas prices are primarily driven by the underlying price in the global wholesale market of crude oil and natural gas. These are also influenced by exchange rates and a range of other supply and demand factors, including stock levels, logistics and distribution costs and seasonal demand variations.