Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of moving from E10 to E20 petrol on vehicles and consumers.

The closure of UK bioethanol production in the UK this year represents a significant loss in capacity. However, it is not considered likely to impact the manufacture or supply of E10 petrol in the UK. It is expected that the supply of bioethanol for petrol suppliers will continue to be met by both bioethanol produced at the remaining UK plants and by imports. The US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD) does not impact the number of litres of ethanol that will be supplied in the UK as renewable transport fuel.

Any proposals to change legislation covering the bioethanol content of petrol, to move from E10 to E20 for example, would be subject to extensive public consultation, and include a full assessment of impacts. There is no timeline for the introduction of E20 petrol in the UK, as no decision has been made to mandate E20 or to make any other changes to ethanol blending permitted in petrol standards. The Department will be setting up an expert working group later this year to investigate the feasibility of increasing the level of ethanol blending in petrol in the UK beyond E10.