asked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he intends to make a transfer of funds from the national oil account to the Consolidated Fund, as provided for in section 40(3) of the Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975.

With Treasury agreement I have today made a transfer of £300 million from the NOA to the Consolidated Fund. This represents money which has accrued to the account largely from petroleum royalties and from BNOC's receipts, and which is now forecast to be surplus to the needs of the account.