Asked by: Gill German (Labour - Clwyd North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to identify, detain and seize vessels involved in transporting Russian oil in circumvention of international sanctions, including those operating as part of the so‑called shadow fleet; and what discussions his Department is holding with European partners on overcoming the legal and political barriers to the release of frozen Russian state assets held in Europe for use in support of Ukraine.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In response to the first question, I refer the Hon Member to the answers provided on 10 April in response to Question 123071, and on 28 January in response to Question 106997. In response to the second question, the UK and wider G7 countries have committed to ensuring that Russian sovereign assets remain immobilised across our jurisdictions until Russia ceases its war of aggression and pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine. We will continue to work with international partners to ensure Ukraine gets the support it needs.
Asked by: Gill German (Labour - Clwyd North)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of wholesale electricity prices being set by the marginal cost of gas generation on the extent to which consumer bills reflect lower-cost renewable generation.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Marginal pricing incentivises the cheapest sources of energy production to provide as much power as possible, more expensive producers are only used when it is necessary to meet demand.
The real problem is that we rely too much on volatile fossil fuels – and the solution is our clean power mission: upgrading our grid while accelerating the rollout of clean, homegrown energy, so the price of electricity is instead set by clean power that we control.
Every wind turbine we switch on and solar panel we deploy helps reduce our exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets.