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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had discussions with the National Grid on the potential merits of building an offshore electricity grid instead of additional on-land energy pylons.

BEIS has worked with National Grid Electricity System Operator to bring together the design of connections for offshore wind with wider network reinforcements and consider the cumulative environmental and community impacts upfront.

Where the need for new reinforcements have been identified in the Holistic Network Design (HND) no decisions have yet been taken by National Grid Electricity Transmission. Any project will be subject to the relevant planning processes. Placing all new infrastructure offshore is not a feasible option. Electricity needs to get to where the demand is, which is onshore. Even with offshore cables, infrastructure is required at landing points.