Energy security department to move civil servants to North Sea oil hub

Ministers are set to shift more civil servants out of London, including relocating 200 officials from the department responsible for tackling climate change to a new office in Aberdeen, Britain’s oil and gas capital.

The plans are due to be unveiled next week by deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden as part of a wider announcement on civil service decentralisation, according to people familiar with the plan.

Dowden is also expected to shift a number of other civil servants to Wales and enlarge the business department outpost in Darlington in north-east England, where the Treasury also has a significant presence, the people said.

The movement of officials from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to Aberdeen in Scotland comes as Rishi Sunak’s administration has sought to shore up investor confidence in North Sea oil.

Sunak’s government has dialled down its net zero policies in recent months and stepped up its rhetoric about the importance of maintaining home-produced fossil fuels in the medium term.

The prime minister used the King’s Speech last month to force the energy regulator to carry out annual licensing rounds in the North Sea basin.

Although Sunak insists he is committed to reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, he has also rolled back several green targets including the future ban on oil boilers and restrictions on petrol and diesel cars.

Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s policy director, said places like Aberdeen needed an “urgent plan” to move towards clean energy.

“Unfortunately, based on Rishi Sunak’s record so far, this move is likely to signal the exact opposite,” he said.

Officials at the energy security department said the decision to open the office in Aberdeen reflected the importance not only of oil producers but also the fast-growing offshore wind industry.

The North Sea Transition Authority and the Net Zero Technology Centre both have bases in the city already. DESNZ already has a limited presence in Aberdeen with officials working for the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning, one of its quangos

Ministers see moving state jobs north of the border as an important part of cementing the “union” between England and Scotland.

The Cabinet Office said: “We don’t comment on speculation.”

The government is already more than half way towards meeting its target of moving 22,000 civil service jobs outside London by 2030 in a programme called “places for growth”, which is designed to support ministers’ levelling up policy to address regional economic disparities.

Yet between 2010 and 2021 there was a net increase of 15,401 civil servants in London and a net decrease of 58,005 across the other regions, the Financial Times has previously reported.

The increase in civil servants in London was partly because of the surge in policymaking roles in the capital dealing with Brexit and then Covid-19.

Aberdeen’s chamber of commerce said the move was “fantastic news” for a city that has about 45,000 people employed in the offshore energy sector. 

It “will place the department in proximity to an industry undergoing an exciting, yet nevertheless challenging transition”, said Ryan Crighton, policy director at Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce.

Crighton added it made “complete sense for energy civil servants to be located in the north east”.