Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she make an assessment of the potential (a) economic and (b) environmental impacts of establishing an offshore grid to connect offshore windfarms off of the coast of the East of England to the grid.

The government is committed to identifying the most efficient and environmentally sustainable approaches to connecting offshore wind generation to the electricity networks, including solutions coordinating offshore cabling where they are most optimal.

This is why the National Policy Statements require developers to consider opportunities for offshore coordination and assess designs against cost, and cumulative impacts on the water environment - justifying how the mitigation hierarchy (avoid, reduce, mitigate, compensate), has been applied to address possible impacts.