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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the expansion of extraction activity in the North Sea on wholesale domestic gas price.

As an internationally traded commodity, natural gas prices are primarily driven by the underlying price in the global market. Many of the factors affecting the spikes seen recently in wholesale gas prices are attributable to international activity extending beyond the UK's domestic production. To date, the Department has not undertaken analysis of the impact of increased domestic gas production on domestic wholesale price specifically.