Prime minister Andy Burnham faces a key decision in whether to allow oil production in the North Sea to continue or keep to his party’s manifesto promise and end it.
The issue comes as the consultation period has ended on whether the Jackdaw gas field, east of Aberdeen, should be allowed. Consultation on the Rosebank oil field, north west of Shetland, will end in a week, on 17 August.
The current Labour government made a manifesto pledge to discontinue the issuing of exploratory oil and gas licences in the North Sea, something it has kept to so far.
Both Jackdaw and Rosebank gas and oil fields were approved by the previous Conservative government in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Court filings asserted the environmental impact assessments conducted for the developments failed to consider downstream emissions resulting from the combustion of the extracted fossil fuels.
A trial was heard alongside another case against the separate Jackdaw gas field.
Former-energy secretary Ed Miliband doubled down on his party’s manifesto pledge in June 2025 when the Treasury launched its paper on a long-term successor to the windfall tax currently afforded to industries operating in the region.
In October last year, more than 110 companies signed a letter calling on the government to end the windfall tax, the Energy Profits Levy (EPL).
Removing the EPL would slow down the transition from fossil fuels by enhancing the investment attractiveness of new oil and gas projects. It is a temporary UK tax on the profits of oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea.
It was introduced in part to raise money to help fund support for households struggling with high energy bills by taxing the profits of oil and gas companies operating in the UK.
Current proposals for the North Sea have seen the government commit to working with communities and organisations that serve the region to develop a transition plan.
It is doing this in conjunction with the North Sea Transition Authority, which currently regulates licence issuing, and aims to develop proposals to offer thousands of jobs to those that will lose work when oil and gas exploration ceases.
Burnham has yet to say what he plans to do with the consenting of either the Rosebank or Jackdaw projects or if the issuing of exploratory licenses for the North Sea will continue.
Legal action against the two oil fields was initially launched in 2022 and then in 2023 but gained stronger grounding following the Finch ruling in the Supreme Court in June 2024.
In January last year, the challenges against the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil extraction developments in the North Sea were upheld, meaning consent was revoked.
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