Written question asked by Mike Penning (Conservative) on Monday, 12 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 15 December 2005. It was answered by Malcolm Wicks (Labour) on Thursday, 15 December 2005 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Gas Prices

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the availability of gas supplies (a) in the UK and (b) from abroad; and if he will make a statement on the impact on British industry of the recent increases in prices for gas.

Answer: The Government's assessment of the availability of gas supplies from UK sources is set out in the Secretary of State's report to Parliament which is published on the Department's website at http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/publications/policy/sec_supply_first_report.pdf—see chapter 4, page 14.The Government are committed to working with others to provide an appropriate framework for international trade in gas, and to developing partnerships with gas producing and transit countries. Decisions as to the amount of gas to be imported, from which sources and through which supply routes and import points, are for individual market participants.There is a general concern that changes in other governments' national rules are potentially diverting cargoes of liquefied natural gas away from Great Britain, and that gas supplies via the interconnector from continental Europe have not fully responded to recent strong price signals; Ofgem and the Government are pursuing these issues urgently with the European Commission, including through a letter from my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to Commissioner Kroes. The Government's Energy Review, due to report in 2006, will look at the reliability of energy supplies in the medium and long term.I, as well as DTI and Ofgem officials, have met representatives of industry on numerous occasions to discuss the impact of gas price rises and ways of mitigating that.

Secondary information