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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to recent decisions by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the current wholesale cost of fuel, what assessment they have made of the cost of fuel at petrol stations in the UK.

Her Majesty’s Government monitors the national average retail prices of fuels and these are published on GOV.UK.

BEIS analysis shows that changes in the price of crude oil are the main driver of movements in the national average retail prices of fuels such a petrol and diesel. Other factors include currency exchange rates and the balance of supply and demand for these fuels in the wholesale petroleum products markets. Changes in the price of crude oil feed through to the retail prices over the course of about 6 weeks.

The Government believes that a competitive market is the best way to keep prices low. Retail fuels markets are subject to UK competition law under the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).