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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the introduction on an independent fuel price monitoring body.

The Government believes that it is essential that consumers get a fair deal and that a competitive market is the best way to keep prices low.

The Office of Fair Trading last looked at fuel prices in 2013, and I expect its successor, the Competition and Markets Authority, to keep them under review.

The Department continues to monitor fuel prices and publishes weekly reports at www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/oil-and-petroleum-products-weekly-statistics. BEIS analysis is that changes in the price of crude oil are the main driver of changes in the national average retail prices of petrol and diesel and both rises and falls in crude oil price reach the pumps within 7 weeks. The Government does not believe that a monitoring body is necessary.