Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many jobs were lost in the North Sea oil industry in each of the last two years.

Andrea Leadsom

According to figures taken from Oil and Gas UK’s latest Economic Report, it is estimated that over the course of 2015 there was a 15% reduction in jobs to 375,000 across the entire employment spectrum, including direct, indirect and induced jobs. For the previous year OGUK estimated that around 440,000 jobs were supported by the sector.

The Government is committed to supporting industry to avoid further redundancies and helping those who have unfortunately lost their jobs. We are working with the Scottish Energy Jobs Task Force to ensure that employers support those at risk of redundancy helping them to access future opportunities through training, education, and employment. In addition to this, my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced in January a new Inter-Ministerial Group on oil and gas that will publish a UK Oil and Gas Workforce plan in the Spring.