Oral Answers to Questions

Gregory Campbell Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Michael Shanks]

My hon. Friend is a fantastic champion of her community and of the potential of businesses in her community to contribute to this. We have been clear as a Government that we want UK supply chains to benefit from these projects and to deliver their world-leading expertise across all our civil nuclear projects, including the SMR programme, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. To achieve this, we will continue to engage with industry right across the country and to address any barriers to entry into the nuclear sector, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises who might not know exactly how to enter the supply chains, to ensure that they are in the best possible place to take advantage of the huge number of opportunities that will be created by this new golden age of nuclear in the UK.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

The Minister has outlined his determination and urgency on nuclear power. I hope he is able to confirm that everyone across the United Kingdom will benefit from lower costs as a result of the construction of mini nuclear reactors.

[Michael Shanks]

We know that to bring down bills for everyone, we need a clean power system that includes nuclear providing the stable baseload across the country. That also benefits Northern Ireland through the interconnectors, but obviously energy decisions are reserved in Northern Ireland. We are committed to bringing down the cost of these projects as much as possible, and also to ensuring that we get the economic advantages. When these projects are on the system, they will deliver clean, secure power made here in the UK for generations, and that is how we will deliver energy security and get us off the volatility of fossil fuels, which is what has been driving up bills for the hon. Gentleman’s constituents and mine for so long. This is the answer for our energy security and for good jobs right across the country.