High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I think public opinion is changing, and it has changed quite a lot in the past few years, but the noble Lord is right that there remain a lot of obstacles to moving fast in this space. That is why the Fingleton report, with its 47 recommendations, is so important. We will be responding fully to that within the three-month period—that is, by the end of February—and will propose to drive that forward as fast as we can, for exactly the reasons he has raised.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Trefgarne (Con)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Labour Benches.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government’s impetus on the nuclear programme is extremely welcome, but would it not be even better for the nations and regions of this country, and for our important manufacturing industry, if our world-leading position were being reinforced by doing the maximum amount of engineering for the construction of these projects here in the UK?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is that, as we move towards contract completion with Rolls-Royce for the small modular reactors, we want to ensure that 70% of the supply chain, both onsite and offsite, is through British construction.

COP Climate Negotiations: Cities

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I am sure the noble Baroness will be aware of what the UK Government have done to support cities in the COP negotiations. There are, as we might say, good COPs and bad COPs. COP 28— a particularly good COP—was the occasion of the UK support for, and promotion of, the CHAMP pledge, the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships, which involves cities centrally in what is happening in COP negotiations in future. The Local Governments and Municipal Authorities Constituency, the LGMA, is the official body as far as COP is concerned, but the UK is committed to making sure that the C40 cities group—which, after all, is led now by the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan—will play a central role in COP negotiations in the future.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, will there not be greater support for these measures from the citizens of those cities and towns in the UK if they can see the benefit coming through to them in their work? What steps are the Government, and those towns and cities when they are commissioning work, taking to ensure that, whenever possible, the work is sourced from the United Kingdom, unlike so many cities that are, for example, buying buses from China with all the other attendant issues?

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

My Lords—

Net Zero: Civil Society and Faith-based Organisations

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

The noble Baroness will be well aware of the tremendous amount of work that needs to be done on the infrastructure changes to bring about net-zero energy for the future. Of course, that entails bringing forward new infrastructure—which, by the way, the previous Administration completely fell down on in terms of the green transition—but that needs to be done, in terms of the theme of our discussion today, with the involvement of local communities and local areas in getting that new infrastructure in place in a satisfactory way. The question of undergrounding or otherwise of cables for the future is something that clearly needs to be considered, as does the overall benefit of that new infrastructure for those communities in terms of bringing their bills down, bringing clean energy to their communities and making sure that the green transition is carried forward as best as possible at local level.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

I commend the Minister for his favourable mention of government/publicly owned Sheffield Forgemasters and its role in the small modular reactor programme. Could he therefore reassure the House that the vessels for the first-in-class modular reactors, which we are funding through Rolls-Royce, will in fact be built at Sheffield Forgemasters and not shipped in from overseas?

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

As I think my noble friend will be aware, we are in the process of developing a first modular nuclear reactor with Rolls-Royce. Considerable progress has been made in that development but as yet no decisions have been taken about exactly where the components of that new modular reactor will be built, subject to the general commitment that the highest possible percentage of the components for small nuclear reactors, and other parts of the nuclear programme, will be sourced in the UK. Certainly, it will be the Government’s intention to make sure that that commitment is met to the greatest possible degree.

Digital ID

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, underpinning any individual ID scheme has to be an individual ID number. Other countries normally seem to base that on date of birth plus a scheme of other numbers. Can the Minister make clear to us whether we have decided what our system will be? How far have they advanced in developing it, and when is it likely to be rolled out?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his question. The consultation will start later this year. It will be very broad, and we welcome input from many groups. We know that this is not straight- forward; it will require considerable thought about how to get it exactly right. The answer is that we do not yet have a view on exactly how the system will be designed. That will be part of the consultation process. It will not be done overnight, and it will require us to come back to this House on many occasions. It will have great public input and technical input as we design it.

Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Monday 19th May 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Spellar]

To ask His Majesty’s Government when they expect to make an announcement on the award of contracts for small modular nuclear reactors.

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath) (Lab)]

My Lords, Great British Nuclear is overseeing the small modular reactor competition for UK deployment. Following a period of detailed negotiation, bidders have now submitted final tenders, which Great British Nuclear is evaluating. Final decisions will be taken shortly.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, I convey my best wishes to the Minister on his birthday today. Can I just press him a little further and ask him to celebrate by bringing some good news to the energy, nuclear and engineering industries and their workers and consumers by finally announcing or even giving a clearer date as to when a decision will be taken on small modular nuclear reactors? Is this to be yet another great British development lost to overseas suppliers due to bureaucratic inertia, dither and delay?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord for his congratulations. What better way to spend my birthday than answering his Question? I understand his frustration. Of course, we want to get this SMR programme over the line. Great British Nuclear is coming to the end of its evaluation process. I expect an announcement to be made within the next few weeks. I believe we have a great opportunity in this country to develop small modular reactors and a UK supply chain and to get us towards net zero, because of the essential contribution that nuclear power will play in the baseload we require.

Energy Prices: Energy-intensive Industries

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord and thank him for the work he does on behalf of so many important industry companies. He will know that we are in discussion with organisations such as his own and many other business and industry interests. As he said, we hope to publish the industrial strategy within the next few weeks. I cannot give him any guarantees as to what will be in it, but I assure him that I understand the pressures on our industries, and we are considering those very carefully in government.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

But, my Lords, the fundamental flaw in the pricing system introduced at the time of privatisation is that the average price of electricity was determined by the marginal price of the last kilowatt, which is normally produced by gas and, as the Minister rightly said, is therefore driven by international gas prices. That is not a law of physics or engineering but a political decision. Should we not be examining that to rebalance the pricing system to the benefit of industry and indeed consumers?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, the electricity market operates on the principle of marginal pricing, whereby the wholesale price of electricity is set by the last technology needed to meet overall demand. That is why gas tends to set the price for the market. We are of course looking at this as part of our REMA review that I have referred to. But the faster we decarbonise our energy and move towards clean power, the less gas will have the influence it does in the current system.

Energy Grid Resilience

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

Yes, my Lords, we are. It is a very relevant point. Clearly, we are looking for a balanced energy mix for the future. We see nuclear as being an essential baseload. We will have renewables, but we are looking at hydro storage, as the noble Lord reflected in his own question. The whole point is that we will have a balanced system, but one that is heavily decarbonised. That is exactly the aim of what we seek to do.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, the Statement says that the GB system is “highly resilient” but, in reality, has that not eroded over recent years, as was demonstrated recently at Heathrow, when we have known for some years about capacity problems in west London? The Minister will also be aware of the bottlenecks on the high-voltage national grid, not helped by the current long lead times—around four years—for high-voltage cable and transformers. Even without the rising threat of sabotage, has the network provider not been far too complacent about the threats to the resilience of our electricity network? Finally, he mentioned in a reply about small modular reactors that the industry has been waiting for too long for a decision while our competitors are moving rapidly ahead. Is it not now time for action to get on with building this industry of the future?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, in relation to SMRs, I agree with my noble friend that we need to get on with it. I hope and expect that we will have some decisions very soon. I hope that that will set the foundation for future investment in the SMR programme.

As far as west London is concerned, my noble friend is absolutely right to point out the challenges there, and the fact that we basically inherited a system where there had not been sufficient investment in the grid and local distribution network. In relation to Heathrow, let us await the interim and final reports of the review that we have established to see what lessons can be learned. As I said earlier to the noble Earl, Lord Russell, the fact is that we expect there to be a major investment in our whole grid system between now and 2030. It will be essential to meet our clean power targets. I think that will give industry the confidence to invest in the areas where we wish it to do so.

Scotland: New Nuclear Power Generation

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Earl is not going to draw me into commenting on what the Scottish Government have done on these matters. However, it is worth making the point that, in 2023, 19.3% of electricity generated in Scotland came from nuclear. That indicates that, in clean power, nuclear has a huge amount to offer Scotland, Wales and England.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, would the Government’s hand not be greatly strengthened in dealing with the Scottish Government if they themselves moved ahead on a decision on small modular nuclear reactors? When do they expect to announce the outcome, and can we have something slightly more definitive than “soon”?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I absolutely agree with my noble friend on the importance of the small modular reactor programme. He knows that Great British Nuclear is going through a selection process at the moment. We expect important announcements to be made in the spring.

Internet Activity: Energy Use

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, my understanding is that NESO has estimated that 7 terawatt hours will be used by data centres in 2025, rising to 22 terawatt hours in 2030 and to 62 terawatt hours in 2050. As a comparison, it expects annual electricity demand in 2050 to be between 533 and 700 terawatt hours.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, the expansion of data centres will require a significant expansion of the grid and of energy sources. In a written reply to me, the Minister indicated that, for the high-level grid, there is something like a four-year lead time for securing equipment. Furthermore, on energy sources, data centres need reliable sources of supply. Inevitably, that will mean the development of nuclear power, including small modular reactors. When will the Government get on and make a decision about the future of the small modular reactor programme?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I agree with everything my noble friend said. He knows that we have a programme within Great British Nuclear to appraise the technology involved in a number of shortlisted small modular reactors. It is making considerable progress. We expect further announcements to be made in spring. My noble friend will understand that there are discussions taking place within the spending review.

Small Modular Nuclear Reactors

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Spellar]

To ask His Majesty’s Government when they expect to announce the orders for the first small modular nuclear reactors.

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath) (Lab)]

My Lords, Great British Nuclear is pushing forward with the SMR competition and is negotiating with a four down-selected companies. Once negotiations have concluded, the companies will be invited to submit final tenders, which Great British Nuclear will then evaluate, with final decisions to be taken in the spring.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for that Answer. He will be aware that the Government’s response to the AI action plan this month refers to the opportunity

“to accelerate investment in … Small Modular Reactors”.

He will also be aware that Britain is at the forefront of developing this technology, which could make a significant contribution to our growth agenda right through the country. However, delays in decision-making by the last Government led to significant slippage in the programme. What is the Minister’s department doing? He gave the procedure that would be undertaken, but what is the department doing to get the SMR programme back on track?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I understand my noble friend’s impatience. It is an impatience that I share, because we can all see the potential of small modular reactors in the UK and the export potential of UK companies that are involved in developing SMRs. With fairness to Great British Nuclear, it is going through a tough process. We will have assurance with regard to the technologies and value-for-money issues. Spring is not far away. I understand the haste with which my noble friend wishes us to act in this area.