Businesses: Technology

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Wednesday 10th April 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, the noble Lord rightly points to the importance of the fintech sector and the fact that London is its leading world player. We shall have to look carefully to ensure that we can attract the right people not only from abroad but from the UK. That is why skills will be important. I am sure that my noble friend from the Home Office will have noticed what he had to say on bringing in people from overseas.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, I raise a slightly different aspect. We are ahead of most countries in the world on AI, particularly at our universities, but a large number of university courses are getting very full with Chinese students. Is there any concern about this vast number coming in, bearing in mind their input to a large number of other areas of high tech within our nation?

[Lord Henley]

The noble Lord takes me slightly wider than the original Question. Again, it is a sign of the success of the university sector that it attracts people paying large fees into universities, to the benefit of those universities and of this country. I hope that universities will then be able to consider expanding those courses.

Nuclear Safeguards (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

The noble Lord, too, I suspect, is trying to frighten the horses. What I am saying is that we are meeting some very high nuclear safeguards standards—nothing to do with security or safety—and we will be there in due course. We have always been clear that we will deliver on our international obligations from day one. That is what I have made clear, and we will build to Euratom standards by December 2020.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, I apologise for not being here at the beginning of the debate. As I understand it, these safeguards relate purely to the ability to monitor that none of the products from the nuclear industry are being used somewhere where they could make a nuclear weapon. Am I correct?

[Lord Henley]

The noble Lord is absolutely right and he gave a very good definition for the layman. Given his expertise, we would not dismiss him as such, but he gave a very good layman’s definition of nuclear safeguards. It is important that I make it clear again that this has nothing to do with either safety or security.

Nuclear Power: Future Energy Needs

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Thursday 17th January 2019 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord West of Spithead]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the United Kingdom’s future energy needs of any decision by Hitachi to withdraw from the Wylfa Newydd nuclear project and Toshiba having withdrawn from the Moorside project in Cumbria.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord Henley) (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord’s Question is timely. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will be making a Statement in another place following Hitachi’s announcement this morning; I would have been happy to repeat it. National Grid has confirmed that it does not see an issue for future security of supply for plans for these projects over the long term, and there is plenty of time for the market to respond.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, our nuclear industry is in crisis; I have to say that that Answer has a certain element of complacency in it. In the 1950s, our nation led the world in nuclear power generation, and decisions by successive Governments of all hues have got us into the position today where we cannot even construct a large civil nuclear reactor. A quarter of our energy is provided by nuclear; looking at 2035, when the energy requirements will be much larger, we are saying that a third of our energy will be supplied by nuclear. Now the only player seems to be Chinese. Bearing in mind our view on the rollout of 5G, are we happy for the Chinese, by 2035, to control one-third of the energy supply of our nation?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I am glad that the noble Lord stresses the importance of the nuclear industry and the fact that it is supplying some 20% of our electricity requirements and 40% of low-carbon electricity. Some 15 nuclear reactors operate throughout the UK. We would have hoped for a better announcement from Hitachi but that was not the case, and it is obviously right that my right honourable friend looks to the taxpayer to make sure that there is the appropriate deal for them. At the moment, costs in the nuclear sector are still rising, at a time when costs for a great many renewables are coming down. That is one of the reasons why there are problems. However, the fact is that we have seen the development of Hinkley C, and, as the noble Lord was quite right to suggest, we are the first Government for a number of years to make progress in that area.

Oil and Gas: UK Continental Shelf

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Monday 18th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

I agree with the noble Lord that the industry has had a pretty traumatic time but I think things are picking up. As he said, this is very important for energy security, jobs, the economy and—dare I say it—the Exchequer. As I said in my original Answer, we are providing funds for seismic surveys to help in the next round. As the noble Lord will be aware, some 61 companies got licences in the previous round, with the potential to produce some 320 million barrels of oil equivalent. I hope something similar or better will come from the next round.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that oil and gas platforms on the continental shelf, undersea cables and fisheries are all part of what was once called the “offshore tapestry”, with a small fleet of ships to look after that tapestry. We no longer have that; post Brexit, there may be some issues. Does the Minister not believe that we should perhaps look at investing in more ships to look after that highly valuable offshore tapestry?

[Lord Henley]

The noble Lord makes a very important point, which I will certainly pass on to my colleagues in other departments.

Brexit: Galileo Space Project

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Thursday 26th April 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, all I said—I am not going to go much further than this—is that we are looking at other options. I also stress that we have the capability to do quite a lot ourselves. I am not suggesting that we will engage with Russia and other similar countries.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that we work closely with America in this field—most of the work is so sensitive we cannot talk about it—and that we were so far ahead of anyone else in the world in satellite coverage and intelligence that we used to help other countries. It is extraordinary that Europe is now playing silly games about the use of satellites when we have been so generous in the past in the giving of intelligence and working with it. It is also extraordinary, given the skills that we have in this area, that it is not keen to keep us fully involved.

[Lord Henley]

The noble Lord could hardly have put it better, particularly in stressing the capabilities that we have in this country. Only recently I visited an American company making micro-satellites in Glasgow. It could have invested anywhere in the world but it chose Glasgow because it knew Glasgow has the right people with the right skills here in the United Kingdom. We have a great capability and I am sure other people will recognise this.

Manufacturing: Digital Technology

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Thursday 2nd November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, again, I can only agree with the noble Lord. We are doing well. There is more to be done and he will hear more in due course. Again, if he is patient he will see the industrial strategy later this month.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, there are huge benefits in digital technology, but I skimmed the review wearing the old hat I used to have on security. Sadly, this marvellous digital revolution opens up vulnerabilities. I could not see anything mentioning any concerns on that. We need to be very wary because it will often open up people to losing their identities and all sorts of things. We need to be very aware that, as well as all the benefits we get from digitalisation, there are some real risks. We need always to bear those in mind.

Industrial Strategy

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Wednesday 19th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I think that the noble Lord is confusing two things. This is a question about how the White Paper is to be structured. It is clear from the feedback received during the consultation period that technical skills is probably the most important area we need to focus on, along with universities and science and innovation, infrastructure, and what we all call “place”. We cannot have an industrial strategy that does not reach out to other parts of the country beyond London.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, I am sure that the Minister will agree that a key plank of any industrial strategy is the shipbuilding strategy which we were promised in the spring of this year. It is now past the summer solstice and by the time we sit again the September equinox will have come and gone, so which spring are the Government talking about, bearing in mind that the recent order for three frigates does not really solve the terrible problem of having too few escorts for our great nation? It is a national disgrace. So when will the shipbuilding strategy actually be on the streets?

Nuclear Energy: Small Modular Reactors

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Monday 24th April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

As the noble Baroness knows, Rolls-Royce is one of the 32 companies which have submitted a proposal. There is no doubt that if we could build SMRs on a modular basis, much of the work could be done in the UK. We may have lost out in the race to build big nuclear plants, but companies such as Rolls-Royce and others in the UK could compete effectively on SMRs and we could then export them around the world. But there is no point embarking on that new technology until we are sure that it can deliver low-carbon energy at an economic cost.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, there seem to be huge benefits in moving down the route of small modular reactors. The Minister will be aware that, notwithstanding the efforts of my leader, the Navy runs a huge number of nuclear reactors. When those nuclear submarines are plugged into the national grid, does the MoD get money back for the electricity being put into the national grid?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I am not quite clear whether the noble Lord is announcing yet another Labour Party policy: that in future, Polaris submarines will, instead of firing Trident missiles, be plugged into the national grid, but it is something to conjure with. In principle, the way that the grid will be supplied in future will enable those supplying it, whether through SMRs or other ways, to be properly remunerated.

Brexit: Aerospace Industry

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Monday 6th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, the relationship between the MHRA and the EMA, similar to that between the CAA and the EASA, is absolutely critical. The MHRA, from my memory, does 40% of the work of the EMA—so the relationship between those two organisations will indeed be very important.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, as one of the largest contributors to the European Investment Bank, what influence have we had over the money that it has just given to the European Defence Fund, which was set up in November, and the subsequent allocation by the European Defence Agency for defence and aerospace procurement all around Europe?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Lord raises such an interesting question that I cannot actually answer him, so I will have to write to him afterwards.