Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many locations in the North Sea which the UK has licensed for oil and gas (a) exploration and (b) extraction overlap with (i) Marine Protected Areas and (ii) the Arctic region as defined by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.

The environmental impact of proposed offshore oil and gas developments is subject to rigorous regulatory assessment by the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED), including a full environmental impact assessment and consultation with statutory nature protection bodies and the public.

The North Sea Transition Authority has published an interactive map of where oil and gas licences are on the UK Continental Shelf which can be found here.