Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's decommissioning programme, and that programme's contribution to the Plan for Change, in particular to regional growth and skills development.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The nuclear industry has a proud record of supporting tens of thousands of well-paid, highly skilled, unionised jobs, which are vital to communities across the country.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority permanently employs 17,500 people and invests £45m each year in apprentice and graduate development supporting the Nuclear Skills Agenda. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority also supports approximately 5,000 companies as part of its supply chain. The economic impact of the NDA group was reported upon in 2022 [1] and has most recently undertaken an economic impact assessment which will be published this financial year [2]
[1] Microsoft Word - Magnox economic impact assessment - 2022, The economic contribution of the NDA to the West Cumbria economy, Dounreay_Socio-economic_report_2022.pdf
[2] at Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - GOV.UK
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for a medical isotope production facility in North Wales, and what steps they are taking to ensure secure domestic access to medical isotopes for diagnostic and therapeutic use in the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the Welsh Government’s project to build a reactor for medical radioisotope manufacture.
The Department regularly engages with suppliers, specialist clinicians, the British Nuclear Medicine Society, and the UK Radiopharmacy Group to support the continued supply of medical radioisotopes for National Health Services.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal by the Sustainable Energy Association to incentivise energy bill saving by rewarding in-use energy efficiency measures, in place of the current approach of up-front payments.
Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is committed to ensuring energy efficiency schemes deliver measurable benefits for households. As part of the Warm Homes Plan, officials are exploring how to better target support and improve outcomes.
While the government has not made a formal assessment of the Sustainable Energy Association’s specific proposal, we will continue to engage with stakeholders on innovative approaches to improve affordability and effectiveness of retrofit delivery.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they have considered in addition to the installation of heat pumps to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from domestic hot water and heating systems.
Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Decarbonising heating is one of the biggest challenges facing the UK getting to Net Zero by 2050. A range of technologies are likely to be required including heat pumps, heat networks and biomethane. As part of the Government's ambitious Warm Homes Plan, we will upgrade up to 5 million homes across the country by accelerating the installation of efficient new technologies like heat pumps, solar, home batteries and insulation. We will publish more details soon.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the alliance is planned to be procured to deliver the Midlands Rail Hub.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Following the Chancellor's commitment to progress Midlands Rail Hub in the 2025 Spending Review the procurement of the alliance that will design and deliver Midlands Rail Hub is currently ongoing.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in bringing forward legislation to ban Russian nuclear fuel imports by 2028.
Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has already committed to removing any Russian fuel and uranium supply to the UK by 2030 and officials continue to explore ways to re-emphasise existing commitments to divestment.
The procurement of nuclear fuel, including uranium and enrichment services, is a commercial matter for reactor operators. The Government works closely with these operators to ensure there is a secure and resilient supply for the UK fleet. All reactor operators must comply with UK domestic and international legal obligations, including any sanctions or trade measures in place against Russian-origin uranium.
The Government will continue its work with international partners to build resilient in nuclear fuel supply chains and to remove global dependencies on Russia.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan to allow only 700 megawatts of additional Scottish onshore wind capacity to connect to the grid between 2031 and 2035.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The regional capacity breakdowns for transmission connected technologies required for 2035 as set out in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, connections reform annex, have been developed using ranges from the NESO Future Energy Scenarios 2024 net zero aligned scenarios.
The ‘Future Energy Scenarios: Pathways to Net Zero 2025’ document outlines NESO’s methodology in full detail.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have undertaken an impact assessment of the decision to cap the supply of projects in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan and the risk of driving up bills by reducing competition.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The capacity ranges set out in the Action Plan are not intended to cap supply of projects but, amongst other things, help prioritise the reform of the connections process. Today’s connections queue is significantly oversubscribed, with large volumes of some technologies and less of others.
It is vital that Contracts for Difference (CfD) continues to offer value for money to consumers and continue to deliver low prices, which is why auctions are designed to keep the process competitive.
Our reforms are aimed at improving the ability of the CfD mechanism to support a large volume of renewable capacity – particularly offshore wind – whilst maintaining competition, which provides value for money for consumers.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the civil nuclear new build sector was not identified as a key sector to be included within their Energy Skills Passport, launched on 22 January; and what plans they have to include it, given the UK's nuclear sector needs 40,000 net new entrants by 2030 to meet its growth ambitions.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Department is a strategic partner of the Energy Skills Passport project in collaboration with industry and Scottish Government. The passport is an industry led initiative overseen by Renewable UK and Offshore Energy UK and supported by the UK and Scottish Governments.
The Department and Scottish government are working with RUK/OEUK to identify how best to expand the passport in the future.
Through the Nuclear Skills Plan, we are committed to encouraging career transitions and accelerating learning and upskilling for new entrants into the nuclear sector.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the outcome of the prior information notice (PIN) exploring building a further large-scale nuclear power station, published in May 2024; whether they will list the potential vendors who expressed an interest; and what assessment they have made of the future policy for large-scale nuclear development in the UK.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Prior Information Notice was published to support policy exploration under the previous Government and has since closed with 10 responses. The names of the organisations which responded is commercially sensitive. No decision has yet been taken on whether to pursue a future large-scale project.