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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure UK energy self sufficiency.

The Government is committed to making sure consumers have secure, affordable and increasingly clean energy. Maintaining a diverse energy market is essential as we move to end our reliance on fossil fuels as part of our Net Zero ambition.

Great Britain’s (GB) gas market is one of the most liquid and developed markets in the world and provides security through diversity of supply. GB’s gas sources include indigenous production, six pipelines with Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands and three Liquefied Natural Gas terminals. In addition, the United Kingdom has a number of gas storage facilities, which act as a source of system flexibility when responding to short-run changes in supply and demand.

As an increasing proportion of electricity is generated from inflexible and intermittent low-carbon sources, diversity of electricity supply will continue to be critical to providing the necessary flexibility and system reliability. Alongside domestic generation, interconnection with other countries will support delivery of lower costs for consumers, continued security of supply and better-integrated low carbon generation.