Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Brown Excerpts

Wednesday 24th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

That is one of the reasons why we are now investing £36 billion more in our NHS to help cope with the backlog and the extra winter pressures, particularly on A&E. It is also a reason why the booster programme is so vital, because we do not want those beds filled with covid patients and we do not want delayed discharges either.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

Q10. The Prime Minister’s Government have found billions for nuclear but nothing for the Scottish carbon capture cluster and nothing for pumped-storage hydro. Now the Government are at risk of failing tidal stream generation, a technology in which Scotland is a world leader. The ask is for a £71 million ringfenced marine port in next month’s energy auction. The Prime Minister has a choice: provide this money and allow continued scaling up and commercial success, based on a UK supply chain, or see the manufacturing jobs move abroad. What is it going to be?

[The Prime Minister]

I am glad the hon. Gentleman asks that question, because I can tell him and the right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Ian Blackford) that we will be including support for tidal stream to the value of £20 million in the upcoming contract for difference auction—[Interruption.] Come on, that is not to be sneezed at. I have met representatives of Scottish tidal power. What they are doing is fantastic, original and inventive, and we want to support it.