Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of a presumption in favour of offshoring energy infrastructure where agricultural land would be affected by overhead cables or undergrounding.

The energy National Policy Statements (NPS) require developers to minimise impacts on agricultural land and preferably use land in areas of poorer quality. The NPS sets out a starting presumption for overhead lines in most cases and identifies when undergrounding or subsea cables should be considered.