St Helena: Airport

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Verma

Tuesday 7th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

I can reassure my noble friend—or rather, the noble Lord, although he is my noble friend, too—that we will continue to ensure that while the airport is not open and running there will be a service with RMS “St Helena”. But, of course, the longer-term solution has to be that the airport opens and is commercially viable. We are looking at short-term options to establish coverage, perhaps with smaller aircraft. These are all things that we are discussing. But the residents of St Helena can rest assured that they will be able to go backwards and forwards from St Helena.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, clearly the Royal Mail Ship “St Helena” will need to run until the shambles of the airport is sorted out. It is the only British-owned ship that regularly goes through the territorial seas, the exclusive economic zone and the maritime wildlife zones of Ascension Island and St Helena. However, at the moment it does not call on Tristan da Cunha: there is no guaranteed service at all to Tristan da Cunha. Looking to the future, is there any way that the Government can ensure that the royal research ships of the British Antarctic Survey regularly call on all three of those islands on their way to the Antarctic and back again as a matter of course, which would establish a shipping timetable for carrying heavy goods and people and would also establish a regular presence in waters that belong to us?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, the noble Lord has asked a number of questions. To give due importance to each of them would need a letter. But I can assure the noble Lord that we are working very closely with the St Helena Government to make sure that the airport finds a commercial solution and that landings will be possible on the island. In the meantime, we do work with all our partners in the area.

Ukraine: Gas Supplies

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Verma

Wednesday 2nd April 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, the noble Lord is of course aware that the Government have invested £1 billion to ensure that CCS projects go forward. However, the Government have no plans to re-evaluate the role of coal in the UK’s energy mix.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, although the Minister makes a strong case for what the Government are doing, one feels that there is an element of complacency. The noble Lord, Lord Lawson, is absolutely right: to achieve this is not a Sisyphean struggle when we can do things regarding contingency. One never knows quite what will happen. Thirty-two years ago, the Argentinions invaded the Falklands with less than 24 hours’ notice. Things change, so we should have contingency plans in place. We seem to have made it very difficult to get our shop in order to provide power, when power is needed if things go wrong.

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I reassure the noble Lord that we have plenty of supply and I urge him not to err into thinking that this country is fast running out of it. We have only a tiny dependency on Russia—less than 1%—so the Government are doing a very good job of ensuring security.

Energy: Nuclear Power

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Verma

Thursday 29th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend is of course right that there needs to be certainty. However, he will know that these things take a lot of negotiating and a lot of detail needs to be worked out. When I am able to offer my noble friend a definitive answer, I shall bring it to the House.

[Lord West of Spithead]

My Lords, how much have we drawn on the British experience and expertise built up in the naval nuclear programme during the past 50 years in trying to move forward this important ability to generate power from nuclear energy? I am very happy to take an answer from both parts of the coalition on this one.

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, the Government act with one voice.

Energy: Costs

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Verma

Tuesday 16th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I know that my noble friend is greatly concerned about wind farms, but perhaps I can reassure him that on 20 September last we called for evidence to see how well we are doing in terms of our targets on wind farms. I can also assure him that, by and large, we have reached our capacity for onshore farms through what we have already done and what is in the pipeline. My noble friend can rest assured that there will not be a burst of wind farms across the landscape. We are taking wind farms as part of the energy mix that this country needs.

[Lord West of Spithead]

My Lords, I am sure that the noble Baroness would agree that surety of supply of gas is an important part of keeping costs down. Some 14% of our energy comes from Qatar through to Milford Haven, and that is set to rise to 30%. Does she further agree that 19 destroyers and frigates might be a little too few to ensure the security of that supply?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, that is a very important question to which I know the noble Lord will want a fuller answer.

Government: Procurement

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Verma

Monday 25th June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I do not speak on behalf of my noble friends. The question has been noted and I am sure that the relevant Minister will take it up.

[Lord West of Spithead]

My Lords, I do not know whether the Minister is aware that the Royal United Services Institute recently did a study in which it discovered that if things that are designed and built in this country are then purchased, 34% of the money will go straight back to the Treasury. Will the Treasury therefore look at this report? Clearly, if things designed and built in this country are a third cheaper straightaway, and forgetting all the other reasons why one would want to buy high-tech things that are made here, it would be a bit of a nonsense to buy those things off-the-shelf from overseas.

[Baroness Verma]

I think that the noble Lord has answered his own question. I am sure that the Treasury is not aware of all reports but, again, I will raise this one with it.