National Emergency Plan for Fuel

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 28th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

Yes, indeed I can assure the noble Lord that that is the situation. It is what is set out in the national emergency plan for fuel, particularly in terms of the kinds of interventions that can be deployed in a fuel emergency, ensuring that the least invasive measures are carried out first. As the noble Lord will know, there are circumstances in which the military could be involved in making sure that fuel gets to the right destinations and that it is carried and delivered securely and reliably. That is all in the national emergency plan for fuel—a plan that we are not intending to implement at the moment because the circumstances envisaged by that emergency plan are not in place.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, can the Minister assure us that steps are being taken to ensure that we have adequate storage for fuel and gas? The situation that the Government inherited was certainly unsatisfactory for gas and, given the unstable international environment, we clearly need much more reserve capacity to provide resilience.

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right to raise storage and resilience. As far is gas is concerned, we have reliable supplies from a range of sources. Most notably, 43% of our supplies come from UK fields. A further 20% comes from Norwegian fields, some of which can be landed in the UK only when it has come from the fields. Only a small percentage comes in from LPG and other tankered arrangements. The question of supply, therefore, is about supplementing those secure supplies with a reasonable amount of reserve facility. That is indeed in place, in terms of eight reserve supply arrangements, as well as the development of the former Rough field in the UK for gas supply purposes.