Source · Select Committees · Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Accepted in Part
Commit to issuing explanatory statements detailing how oil and gas applications are balanced.
Recommendation
We recommend that the Government commit to issuing an explanatory statement after assessing each application, setting out how it has balanced the environmental impact against the economic and energy security benefits of oil and gas fields in its assessment. A justification is vital to ensure the industry and wider public can understand and be confident in the Government’s stewardship of the North Sea continental shelf. (Recommendation, Paragraph 76) Managing the transition
Government response summary AI-generated
The government partially agrees, stating that once a decision is made, it will be published with reasons. However, it does not explicitly commit to a detailed explanatory statement outlining the balance between environmental, economic, and energy security factors for each application as requested.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted in Part
The government partially agrees with this recommendation. Once the Secretary of State has reached a decision, the developer will be notified and the decision published which will set out reasons for the decision. OPRED decisions can be found on the OPRED website. Conclusion 10 Given what is at stake if transition is mismanaged, we are disappointed that Unite the Union has been unable to share, as promised, its plan to create 35,000 energy transition jobs. The plan might have been a valuable and timely contribution to our inquiry and could have assisted us in developing our recommendations to the Government while it develops its own North Sea transition plan. Unite’s clear failure to supply the plan ultimately casts doubt over its existence. (Conclusion, Paragraph 83) We have published our Clean Energy Jobs Plan, which sets a pathway for the clean energy workforce to nearly double from around 440,000 in 2023 to around 860,000 jobs supported across clean energy sectors and their supply chains by 2030, in order to deliver our Clean Energy Superpower Mission. In the recently published North Sea Future Plan, we have set out a suite of measures, including a new North Sea Jobs Service, to deliver a fair and prosperous transition for the oil and gas workforce. We worked closely with Trade Unions in the development of the Clean Energy Jobs Plan, and will continue to work with them as we deliver our policies, including the North Sea Jobs Service. Conclusion 11 A coherent transition plan for the North Sea is urgently needed. While we recognise that the Government has been in power for 15 months, plans are not yet in place and the transition is already well underway. The Government’s consultation, Building the North Sea’s Energy Future, which commits to producing a plan in dialogue with industry, trade unions and communities, is a welcome start but is moving too slowly. (Conclusion, Paragraph 89)
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