§ Mr. DafisTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make it his policy to require the environmental implications of oil and gas exploration and production to be fully assessed before further exploration is allowed in United Kingdom coastal waters.
§ Mr. EggarIt is our general and established policy, before offering blocks for licence in any part of the United Kingdom continental shelf, to consult relevant statutory and non-statutory bodies in advance of any announcement and to attach licence conditions agreed with such bodies which reflect each block's sensitivities. In the course of this consultation, the environmental implications of oil and gas licensing are assessed on a block-by-block basis.
§ Mr. DafisTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what environmental criteria are used in deciding the number, identity and distribution of blocks to be offered in the offshore oil and gas production licensing rounds.
§ Mr. EggarThe number, identity and distribution of blocks to be offered for licence are decided after consultation with a range of statutory and non-statutory bodies. The environmental implications of licensing are assessed on a block-by-block basis, principally by the Department of the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Their criteria include a range of environmental indicators, including the presence of significant numbers of seabirds, fish and other sea creatures, either seasonally or throughout the year. On the basis of this advice, licence conditions may be attached to individual blocks. In some cases, environmentally highly sensitive blocks may be withdrawn at the consultation stage. In the present, 14th offshore licensing round, as a result of the consultation process, about 30 blocks nominated by oil companies and located in environmentally highly sensitive areas were not offered for licensing.