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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many applications he has received for an oil exploration licence in the North Sea in each calendar year between 2014 and 2021; and how many and what proportion of those applications were (a) approved and (b) rejected.

The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) issue licences to search and bore for, and get, petroleum in the seabed and subsoil under the area.

These figures are publicly available from the Oil and Gas Authority and in historic annual reports.