Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill

Key Points

• Establishes a licensing framework for offshore petroleum activities, including permissions to search, drill and extract offshore resources.
• Provides the procedures, oversight and regulatory powers for issuing, monitoring and enforcing offshore licences.
• Includes accompanying explanatory notes and a Delegated Powers Memorandum to explain the powers and how they may be used.
• Committee amendments were debated and largely defeated (Amendment 17: 226 Aye, 287 No; Amendment 10: 44 Aye, 285 No).
• The bill gained broad support in the Lords at Third Reading (286 Aye to 221 No), but voting showed cross‑party and non‑uniform positions in earlier stages.

Progress

The bill has progressed through its readings and is currently at the Lords’ committee stage for detailed scrutiny. Previous divisions show amendments were rejected, while the bill itself received strong support at the Lords’ Third Reading, with further scrutiny expected in committee.

Voting

In early stages, votes were mixed across parties (e.g., Second Reading: 293 Aye, 211 No; Reasoned Amendment to Second Reading: 209 Aye, 292 No). In the Lords, committee amendments were defeated (Amendment 17: 226 Aye, 287 No; Amendment 10: 44 Aye, 285 No), and the Third Reading passed (286 Aye, 221 No), reflecting cross‑party support but not strict party discipline overall.