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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the implications are for his policy on energy security of the decision in March 2018 not to return to operation the Hole House gas storage facility; and what recent assessment he has made of the level of UK energy security.

The decision to close the Hole House gas storage facility for the foreseeable future is a commercial decision for EDF Energy. This withdrawal from commercial operations does not undermine security of supply: in 2017, the Government published its Gas Security of Supply Strategic Assessment which concluded that Great Britain benefits from highly diverse and flexible sources of supply, including domestic production, pipelines from Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, storage and LNG. This analysis shows that GB supply and storage infrastructure is sufficient to meet customer demand in all but the most extreme and unlikely cases. The announced withdrawal from operation of Hole House Farm, the UK’s smallest storage facility, does not materially affect this assessment. We continually engage with EDF Energy and other stakeholders to ensure that this analysis remains up-to-date.