Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that petrol with nil or low biofuel content remains widely available for (a) vehicles registered as historic and (b) other older vehicles; and if he will make a statement.

The ethanol content of petrol supplied in the UK is a commercial matter for fuel suppliers, subject to the Motor Fuel (Composition and Content) Regulations 1999 which set the maximum permissible ethanol content of petrol at ten per cent, known as E10. The Regulations set no minimum ethanol content.

E10 is not yet on sale in the UK. Petrol sold in the UK today typically contains up to five per cent ethanol, known as E5.

The Motor Fuel (Composition and Content) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 ensure that E5 petrol will continue to remain available until the end of 2016, thereby providing a ‘protection grade’ of petrol for drivers of those vehicles which would be incompatible with petrol which has a higher ethanol content.

Should E10 be rolled out by suppliers, we will carefully assess the compatibility of the UK vehicle fleet in determining whether to extend the regulatory requirement for E5 to remain available beyond 2016.

This Government　recognises the concerns of owners of some older vehicles that may not be compatible with E10. The Department is in regular contact with suppliers who in turn have been asked to write to us to give at least three months of notice if they were to plan the introduction of this fuel. As yet none have indicated they have any immediate plans to introduce E10.