Nuclear Energy

Lord Cunningham of Felling Excerpts

Monday 10th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Cunningham of Felling (Lab)]

My Lords—

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, it is in fact the turn of the Liberal Democrats.

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, we will continue to work with CGN on Bradwell, as they have committed to do, and we hope that Bradwell B will become available in due course.

[Lord Cunningham of Felling]

My Lords, is it not clear that the news from west Cumbria is bad news not just for west Cumbria but for the United Kingdom as a whole? We have an ageing fleet of civil nuclear power stations, which it is essential to replace in order to maintain a baseload supply of electricity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is almost no other way of guaranteeing that. I compliment the Government on their support for Hinkley Point, which is more than the Labour Government did—the previous Labour Government did not build a single nuclear power station, to my regret—but is it not important for them to make an urgent reassessment of how progress is stumbling, at best, before it is too late?

Nuclear Sector Deal

Lord Cunningham of Felling Excerpts

Thursday 28th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I was wondering when the noble Lord would get on to Swansea Bay. We dealt with that in a Question only the other day. I think there was recognition from all parts of the House, other than on the Liberal Benches, that it would not be wise to go ahead with a project that would cost the consumers of electricity—remember, it is the consumers who pay for that electricity—three times as much as Hinkley Point, which is not a good deal for the people of Swansea or those around it.

As for decommissioning, yes, that is very important. We will continue our work on decommissioning and, as the sector deal makes clear, we are looking, over the next 20 years, or by 2030, for reductions in the cost of decommissioning of some 20%. That is important.

The noble Lord also mentioned the number of jobs in this area and the importance of making sure that we both generate people with the right skills and attract people with the right skills to this country. That is something that we are aware of. Currently, the industry provides long-term employment for some 87,500 people. The deal will potentially support 100,000 highly skilled jobs, in locations from Cumbria to Somerset. We will make sure we have people with the right skills to perform those jobs.

[Lord Cunningham of Felling (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome the Minister’s Statement. It is the first positive Statement on civil nuclear power we have had for some time. It is a sad reflection that Britain was a world leader in this field and squandered that position, disastrously for future energy policy. Will our existing knowledge and future development of small modular reactors enable Britain once again to be a world leader in future nuclear technology? If so, the Statement is even more welcome.

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his welcome for the Statement. Like him, I can remember an occasion when we were world leaders; we both know that, in Cumbria, we still are world leaders in what it has to offer. The noble Lord is right to call attention to the importance of looking at developments in modular reactors. I can reassure him that, as part of this deal, we are providing £56 million to support the development of advanced modular reactors.

Brexit: Science and Research Funding

Lord Cunningham of Felling Excerpts

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, we believe that EU students, researchers and staff and our own universities make a very important contribution to the United Kingdom. We believe that we have a very strong science sector, as I made clear earlier, and we want that contribution to continue. Given the quality of our higher education sector, which has something of the order of 10 universities in the top 100 world universities, we are confident that it will.

[Lord Cunningham of Felling (Lab)]

My Lords, is the Minister sanguine about the negotiations on our membership of the Galileo programme? Has he or his department done any calculation as to what the consequences will be for the United Kingdom if we are excluded from that very important programme?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, we discussed the Galileo programme only a week or two ago, and I think from all sides of the House noble Lords are sanguine, as the noble Lord said, that we should continue to play a part in that. Government Ministers are doing all that they can to lobby their opposite numbers all around Europe to continue to take part in that. It is again in the United Kingdom’s interest but also in the interest of the rest of the European Union that we continue to play a part in Galileo.

Energy Security: Gas Production

Lord Cunningham of Felling Excerpts

Tuesday 17th April 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I am not going to comment on any individual application that might or might not come forward for the exploration of domestic gas. But I repeat that there are considerable opportunities for this country in production and exploration, and I think we should look at those opportunities.

[Lord Cunningham of Felling (Lab)]

My Lords, is not the lesson of previous Governments, both Conservative and Labour, that energy security comes from being as self-sufficient as possible in energy production? In the present circumstances, given climate change and air pollution problems, that means that we should rely on gas, nuclear power and energy conservation as the bedrock of our policy.

[Lord Henley]

I am in total agreement with the noble Lord and I am glad that he is in agreement with me and my noble friend Lord Lawson.

Economy: Productivity

Lord Cunningham of Felling Excerpts

Wednesday 8th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foster of Bath (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Cunningham of Felling (Lab)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, if we have two short questions, we can hear from the Liberal Democrat Benches and then the Labour Benches.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, the apprenticeship levy is designed to produce another 3 million apprentices over the next four or five years, which will mark a transformation in the number of apprentices we have in this country. The noble Lord referred to the online service. I shall have to investigate that and write to him.

[Lord Cunningham of Felling]

My Lords, sadly, this country has an appalling trade deficit in agricultural and food products, yet agriculture and food argument not included in the industrial strategy at all. Further, our exports of food and other agricultural products have been flatlining for the past 10 years. If we leave the European Union, which is one of the biggest export markets for agricultural and food products this country has, how are we going to make up for the loss of trade which that implies if agriculture and food are not included in our industrial strategy for the future? Before the noble Lord says it, I know that Defra is going to produce its own strategy—but should this not be a prominent part of our national strategy for industrial development?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, agriculture and food production will be a prominent part of our strategy going forward because they are hugely important to the economy. When we discuss our industrial strategy we sometimes focus too narrowly on manufacturing, which now accounts for only 10% of all employment in the economy. We are not going to get the step change in productivity across the whole economy if we do not have a strategy that includes services as well as agriculture.