§ Mr. Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Energy what effect abolition of oil royalties will have on the share of offshore licensing revenue payable to (a) the Isle of Man and (b) Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe general effect can be expected to be to reduce the amount of licence proceeds available to be shared. But it is not possible to make any assessment of the reduction because we will not know which, if any, relevant new fields would have been developed had they not been relieved of royalty.