Energy: Storage

Debate between Lord Christopher and Lord Prior of Brampton

Wednesday 1st February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I do not think that there is any intention to switch nuclear power stations on and off to cover short-term peaks in demand; coal-fired generation, on the other hand, is much more flexible in that regard. The whole point of these new smart systems is to allow much better demand management over the peaks and troughs of energy demand so that, hopefully, we will need less generation capacity in the future than we have done in the past.

[Lord Christopher (Lab)]

My Lords, further to my noble friend’s last question, I believe that we are still using a good deal of nuclear energy—usually electricity—from France. Are we making any contingency arrangements, should there be problems post Brexit over the fact that we rely upon that source of energy?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, if there is any issue about availability of supplies from France, it probably relates more to the fact that a number of France’s nuclear plants are nearing the end of their lives than to anything that comes out of Brexit. In fact, as the noble Lord may know, we are investing in more interconnector capacity, which would increase the capacity from 2,200 megawatts to more than 7,000 megawatts. Again, that should reduce the cost of electricity to our consumers.

NHS: Mental Health Patient Assessment Needs

Debate between Lord Christopher and Lord Prior of Brampton

Monday 12th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I cannot tell the House that we have achieved parity of esteem. Demonstrably, across the country, we have not yet achieved parity of esteem, but we are on a journey to doing so. On the figures that the noble Lord raised, we spent £300 million more last year than the year before on mental health, and every CCG is spending more on mental health this year than the overall increase in their allocation. At the end of October, we will have the figures for the first six months, and perhaps then I can come back to the House and give him those figures in more detail.

[Lord Christopher (Lab)]

My Lords, was it not the case that a good deal of spreading the news of good practice was usefully done by the Audit Commission, which the Government abolished?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I cannot comment on the Audit Commission. I do not know how much good it did in that regard because I was not here at the time. However, I am very conscious of the fact that spreading best practice across the NHS, particularly operational and clinical best practice, could be a lot better. That would be true in a clinical specialty such as orthopaedics. However, it is also true that, in some hospitals, the flow of patients through the hospital is much better organised than in others. There is a great deal to be learned by spreading best practice. There is also a lot to be learned from around the world. I take the view that we have, in the NHS, probably some of the finest hospitals in the world. We also have some very poor hospitals. It should not be all that difficult for the poor to learn from the best.