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 monitor the difference between the wholesale cost of petrol and diesel fuel and the price paid for those fuels by consumers.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) closely monitors average retail petrol and diesel prices and publishes these data regularly. This is available at:

www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/oil-and-petroleum-products-weekly-statistics.

Using commercial reports of the wholesale fuel prices, analysis by the Department suggests that on average, at a national level, wholesale price changes are fully passed through into pump prices within 4-5 weeks. This time represents wholesale contractual arrangements and the time taken for fuel to be delivered to filling stations through the supply chain. There is no evidence to suggest that, for given changes in wholesale prices, retail prices rise faster than they fall.

BEIS analysis shows that the gross retail margins (retail price less tax and wholesale price, which includes distribution and retail costs as well as profit) have remained broadly stable around 8 pence per litre for the past few years.