Fracking

Baroness Worthington Excerpts

Wednesday 11th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, while my noble friend of course makes a very helpful intervention, we need to be mindful that development needs to take account of local communities. Therefore, it is absolutely right that the processes in place are followed properly so that community benefits reach out to those people. We should ensure that the case for fracking is made properly and that businesses, suppliers and operators are all engaged with local communities.

[Baroness Worthington (Lab)]

My Lords, it was incredibly gratifying to see Ministers in the other place finally relent and accept that, far from being fine or perfectly capable, the regulatory regime for fracking in this country needs a massive overhaul. When do the Government plan to consult the public on bringing in the new regulations that were won by Labour in the House of Commons?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I think that the noble Baroness recognises that this Government have been responsive to concerns raised by the public. That is why we have taken those decisions to look carefully at legislation that is going through both this House and the other place. However, to say that our regulatory organisations are not robust would be unfair, because we have among the most stringent regulatory frameworks in the world.

Climate Change

Baroness Worthington Excerpts

Thursday 25th April 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Worthington]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what efforts they are making to ensure that the European Union adopts more ambitious climate change targets.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Baroness Verma)]

My Lords, the Government are committed to taking decisive action on climate change. Our electricity market reform is the biggest change to the UK electricity market since privatisation and is needed to ensure that we have a diverse range of energy supplies and achieve our emissions reduction targets. At EU level, the Government support current proposals to strengthen the EU emissions trading system and support the 2050 low-carbon road map, which sets out the cost-effective pathway to the EU’s objective of cutting emissions by 80% to 95% from 1990 levels by 2050.

[Baroness Worthington]

My Lords, Her Majesty’s Opposition strongly support the Government in seeking to increase the European Union’s ambition in tackling climate change. It is at that level that we need to make progress. We therefore note with regret that on 16 April, 20 UK Conservative MEPs rebelled against the government line and voted against a crucial proposal to lift the EU carbon price off the floor. Can the Minister comment on what measures are being taken to ensure that all of the Government act in support of a unified, EU-wide approach to tackling climate change and to prevent such rebellions taking place in the future?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I join the noble Baroness in her great disappointment that this occurred. However, we are a democracy and are allowed to think for ourselves.

Energy: Nuclear Power

Baroness Worthington Excerpts

Tuesday 29th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland]

Yes, representations. I thank my noble friend the Leader. It is marvellous to have so many educated people in the room. I have lost my way now, but my noble friend has the gist.

[Baroness Worthington]

My Lords, the Government’s daft—I am sorry, I mean draft—energy Bill has been described as a potential train wreck and a deterrent to investment. Can the Minister please explain why the Government have chosen to ignore the considerable expertise and experience on energy issues available in this House by giving noble Lords just two weeks, one of them in the recess, to submit written comments to the pre-legislative scrutiny process? Do the Government not wish noble Lords to help stave off another contribution to the omni-shambles?

[Lord Marland]

Naturally, I should congratulate—

Nuclear Reactors

Baroness Worthington Excerpts

Thursday 7th July 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland]

If only my O-level science teacher could see me now. I am very grateful to the noble Baroness for that question because I have learnt a lot about thorium recently. For those who wish to know, it is named after the Norse god Thor. It comes out of monazite sands, which are largely found in India and Norway, and is generated by a sifting process. The noble Baroness will be pleased to know that it is dimorphic, which I am happy to explain means that it changes from face-centred to body-centred. However, other noble Lords are far more qualified than me to inform us about thorium. All I would say is that it requires two neutrons to process it rather than one. The noble Baroness can find all sorts of other facts in Wikipedia, as, indeed, did I.

[Baroness Worthington]

My Lords, does the Minister agree with me that this is a serious topic? We have just seen a disaster in Japan that has reminded us that existing nuclear technology has inherent problems. Thorium is much safer. As my noble friend said, it does not generate waste and cannot lead to the proliferation of weapons and to terrorism. It is a very abundant and available source of fuel, unlike uranium. Given those advantages, does the Minister agree that we should have a programme to develop proof of concept of this technology?

[Lord Marland]

I am very aware of the noble Baroness’s views and read about them in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago. By the way, that was an excellent and most thoughtful article on this subject. However, the reality is that the nuclear accident in Japan to which she referred did not cause loss of life and we have reacted calmly to it. We are committed to the course that I have just amplified. Government funds are not available at the moment to explore new technologies. However, as I said earlier, if the National Nuclear Laboratory comes up with other suggestions at the end of the summer, we will be very happy to listen to those and explore them further.