asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord Bach on 24 April (WA 314), whether the internal modelling of future oil prices carried out by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform feeds into investment projects being considered by other government departments; and [HL3381]

Further to the Written Answer by Lord Bach on 24 April (WA 314), what is the likely price of oil to be used in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's next update on future trends of oil, gas and coal prices. [HL3382]

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform does not publish oil price forecasts. It publishes oil, gas and coal future price assumptions for the period till 2020, which are used in the department's analytical work. In order to capture some of the uncertainty around future oil prices, three different scenarios are presented: a high, a central and a low scenario.

In January 2008, BERR published a communication on these fossil fuel prices assumptions, calling for evidence and views on them and discussing our approach for updating them. This communication can be found using the link below: www.berr.gov.uk/files/file43624.pdf

We are currently considering the evidence and views gathered during this process. A response to this call for evidence will be published shortly, which will include our new assumptions on future oil, gas and coal prices.

The BERR fossil fuel price assumptions are disseminated throughout Whitehall and, where relevant, are used in other government department's analytical work.