What does the pledge mean?

This pledge appears in the energy section of Labour’s manifesto immediately after references to oil and gas, and offshore workers, and in August 2024 the government confirmed that it referred to new “oil and gas” licences specifically.

In the UK, companies need licences from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) in order to search for and extract offshore petroleum.

The NSTA is a non-departmental public body which is responsible for oil and gas licensing and regulation, as well as the offshore hydrogen and carbon storage industries. Until March 2022 it was known as the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).

The NSTA typically issues petroleum licences in rounds, which take place when it decides it is “necessary”, though some licences may be issued in an “out-of-round process” if there are “exceptional circumstances”.

There are two types of licence—exploration and production. The wording of the pledge refers to licences to “explore new fields”, so appears to refer to exploration licences, although the government has since said that it will also not issue new production licences .

The Petroleum Act 1998 states licences “shall be granted for such consideration as the OGA with the consent of the Treasury may determine”. The NSTA told Full Fact that before any licence is awarded the Secretary of State (SoS) “must give agreement on the environmental aspects of an application”, but later explained that the SoS doesn’t “need to agree to an exploration licence”.

Guidance for the most recent round of offshore licensing, which ran between October 2022 and January 2023, stated that the NSTA can’t award a Seaward Production Licence “unless it has first received the agreement of the SoS under the Offshore Petroleum Activities (Conservation of Habitats) Regulations 2001 (as amended)”. According to the guidance, Seaward Production Licences “cover exploration and appraisal as well as production”.

While the pledge doesn’t specify a geographical area, the entirety of the UK’s Continental Shelf is subject to the same offshore licensing rules, so we can assume the pledge applies to the whole of the UK.

What progress has been made?

The most recent licence was issued by the NSTA on 24 May 2024. No new exploration licences have been issued since then, so as things stand we’re rating this pledge as “appears on track”.

In October 2026 the government greenlit production at the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea. However, a license for this oil field had already been issued under the then-Conservative government in 2022, with previous licences reportedly issued for Jackdaw several decades ago, so this decision does not constitute issuing a new exploration license.

In a press release the government said the decision to allow production to begin was “consistent with the government’s manifesto commitment not to issue any new licences to explore new fields while managing existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan.” The government is also considering whether to approve drilling at the Rosebank oil field, though no announcement has been made at the time of writing.

In August 2024 the government announced it would conduct a consultation on “the implementation of its manifesto position not to issue new oil and gas licences to explore new fields”, resulting in the NSTA saying it had “paused issuing any invitation to apply for new licences (including out-of-round invitations) pending the finalisation of the process”.

The government’s timetable for consulting on the pledge was slightly delayed, but a consultation was held in Spring 2025, with a response published that November as the ‘North Sea Future Plan’. In it, the government said it would “proceed with our plans not to issue new licences to explore new fields” and that this will include both Seaward Production Licences and Seaward Petroleum Exploration Licences.

The government also said it would introduce ‘Transitional Energy Certificates’, which will give the holder “exclusivity over a specific area of the seabed” that is “adjacent to an existing licensed block”. This will allow drilling on new sites that are “adjacent” to existing sites, though the government has said that in order for one of these certificates to be issued by the NSTA one of the conditions is “any eventual development” on the site “will not undertake any exploration”.

The government has said that the Energy Independence Bill, which was included in Labour’s 2024 manifesto and announced in the 2026 King’s Speech, would introduce these certificates and “show climate leadership by meeting the manifesto commitment not to issue new licences to explore new fields”.

Energy minister Michael Shanks said in July 2026 that “The full detail of the Bill and its policy measures will be set out in due course when it is introduced to Parliament.”