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Road fuel sales during the latest lockdown across England, Scotland and Wales have stabilised at a significantly higher level than during the first lockdown last March, according to the latest figures from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Average sales for the week ending January 17 were 2% lower than the previous week and were 62% of a typical week before the first lockdown (which started 23 March 2020). By comparison, average sales during the first two full weeks of the first lockdown were at 34% of typical levels.

Average sales were 3% lower than the previous week in England and 2% lower in Wales. In Scotland average sales were 4% higher.

Average diesel sales were at 68% and petrol sales were 52% of a typical week before lockdown, with average daily sales per filling station of 7,090 litres of diesel and 3,800 litres of petrol, giving a daily total of 10,890 litres.

In the eight weeks prior to the first lockdown on March 23 average daily sales were 17,690 litres per filling station, with a peak of 20,983 on Friday February 28. After the lockdown they fell rapidly bottoming out at 2,522 litres on Sunday April 12.

From this point they climbed steadily reaching 92% of pre-lockdown levels by the end of September.

The figures from BEIS are based on end of the day snapshots of petrol and diesel sales and stock levels from a sample of around 4,500 filling stations across Great Britain.

However, the fuel volumes are collected primarily from oil companies, supermarkets and large independent filling stations, and this results in higher daily average figures than if all independent volumes were included.