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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 25 January (HL5285), what changes they have made to their policy on gas storage; and when they expect increased storage capacity to be available.

Energy security is an absolute priority for this government. It is sensible for the Government to explore all possible options to maintain security of gas supply, this includes exploring the future of the clean energy storage landscape. The department has and will continue to engage with the sector to explore options for storage capacity expansion in the longer term.

The Government recognises the increased capacity the Rough gas storage site could provide and hence welcomes Centrica taking the necessary steps to re-open a proportion of the Rough site for this winter. It is Centrica’s commercial decision to apply for regulatory approvals, and to invest in re-opening the site, and management of injection and production rates is at their discretion.