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 that recent decreases in the cost of oil are reflected in prices offered to consumers.

Petrol and diesel prices are mainly driven by the price of crude oil (priced in US$) and exchange rates.  But are also influenced by a range of factors, which can create small price differences in the short term. This includes balance of demand and refinery capacity, levels of oil stocks, changes to the costs of biofuels and distribution, and retail margins.

BEIS publishes weekly national average pump prices: www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/oil-and-petroleum-products-weekly-statistics. BEIS analysis shows that both rises and falls in crude oil prices are passed through to consumers over the course of 6-7 weeks and found no evidence to suggest that, for given changes in crude oil prices, retail prices rise faster than they fall; and fuel prices will be driven by crude prices over the previous few weeks.