Three climate activists, Jeremy Cox, Mikaela Loach and Karin Van Sweeden brought the legal challenge against the adoption of the government’s oil and gas strategy, arguing that the major oil and gas multinationals have unfair access to a range of tax reliefs for developing offshore resources, including decommissioning tax breaks.

The three campaigners had claimed that, because the strategy ignored tax breaks to drilling companies, the Oil and Gas Authority could not lawfully conclude whether or not production that results is economic for the UK as a whole, in breach of the legislation.