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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what response his Department has made to the expert reports commissioned by the (a) German Government and (b) Dutch government on the Shell proposal to decommission Brent rigs Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta tabled at the Special Consultative Meeting of the OSPAR Commission in October 2019; and when he plans to publish that response.

The content of the reports provided by Germany and the Netherlands were supplementary to their objections to the derogation consultation for Brent and were therefore part of the discussion at the OSPAR Special consultative meeting in October 2019. A record of that meeting was published by the chair of OSPAR in early November 2019.