Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Blair McDougall]

I can absolutely give the hon. Member that reassurance. I have already met with my opposite number in the Northern Ireland Executive. The hon. Member mentions defence industries in particular, and it feels like every single month there is a significant defence order as part of the industrial strategy. It shows that these are not just words on paper, but that we are delivering within the real economy.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I welcome the Minister and, indeed, the whole Front-Bench team to their places—well done!

On the industrial strategy, what steps have been taken to fund high-quality workforce apprenticeships in sectors such as technology, manufacturing and hospitality, to provide young people with opportunities for employment and lives in those industries? Will the Minister undertake to discuss these matters with the relevant Minister at the Northern Ireland Assembly?

[Blair McDougall]

As I said to the hon. Member for South Antrim (Robin Swann) a moment ago, we have already met with the Northern Ireland Executive on these issues. Skills are an essential part of the industrial strategy because we see, again and again, industries around the country that are desperate to grow, and have the orders, but are unable to create the high-paying jobs that we need. That is an absolute priority for us as we implement the industrial strategy.

North Sea Oil and Gas Industry

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 27th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Michael Shanks]

Let me say to the hon. Gentleman’s constituents, and indeed to anyone’s constituents, that over the past few years they have been paying the price for what happens as a result of our exposure to fossil fuels. The last Government had to spend tens of billions of pounds on reducing people’s bills because of that exposure. The hon. Gentleman may have forgotten about that, but I can tell him that his constituents will not have, because they are still paying the price for it. This Government are determined not to make the same mistake again. The Opposition are willing to go back to the fossil fuel casino again and again and hope that it gives them a better hand, but we are going to build the clean power system of the future and bring down bills for good.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I have a number of constituents who depend on the North sea oil and gas industry for their employment. The Minister will be aware that if a buyer is not found, the knock-on effect will not be limited to those families facing redundancy, but will affect our nation’s energy security. Does the Minister accept that the uncertainty of Government support has had an effect on the future sustainability of the industry, and that we should be realistic and acknowledge that the Government need to continue to invest in the industry until we approach that far-off time when, just perhaps, we do not need oil and gas?

[Michael Shanks]

I always welcome the hon. Gentleman’s contributions in our many debates on energy, both here and in Westminster Hall. He is right that the impact of job losses goes well beyond the individuals, although I reiterate that in this case there have been no job losses in the UK; Petrofac continues to be successful, and it is in all our interests to make sure that remains the case.

On the hon. Gentleman’s wider question, I know that the impact is felt on supply chain jobs in his constituency and across the country. That is why we need to build up the new energy infrastructure here as well. For too long, all those offshore wind platforms that were towed into British waters gave jobs to other countries, instead of creating jobs here in the UK. We are determined to do something different. We are driving forward investment in the supply chains to make sure that there is a viable future for his constituents and for those across the country.

Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Ann Davies]

That is true. It is ironic that the two incidents happened on exactly the same date—a few years apart, but on 21 October. We must never forget either.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I am old enough to remember the Aberfan disaster, unfortunately—all the things that happened and the lives that were lost. Northern Ireland has some coal tips, primarily from historical operations at Ballycastle and Coalisland. They have not been active for some years, but does the hon. Lady agree that, although the mining legacy in Northern Ireland is not as prevalent as it is in Wales, there must still be regulatory oversight where sources are less advanced, to ensure that our people have the same protection as those in Wales?

[Ann Davies]

Absolutely. This is an issue for the whole of the United Kingdom.

The disaster brought about the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969, which came into force to improve coal tips’ stability and safety. However, it did not go far enough. Aberfan should have been a moment to address the dangerous legacy of all coal tips once and for all, but the job remains unfinished. Now, because of increasingly violent storms caused by climate change, we have experienced further coal tip slips. There was a major landslide above Tylorstown in Rhondda Fach in 2020, and then in November 2024, in Cwmtillery, a slip was caused by heavy rainfall from Storm Bert. That led to a slurry and debris slide that forced the evacuation of homes.

Plaid Cymru has long warned that the safety of our coal tips is not a matter for tomorrow; it must be addressed urgently. No family should go to bed fearing a landslide on the hillside above them. No community should be left to foot the bill for the negligence of past Governments. The Senedd recently passed the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Act 2025, which will establish the Disused Tips Authority for Wales, the powers of which will include requiring landowners to ensure that coal tips located on their land are stable. We must, however, not forget that the issue of coal tips predates the dawn of devolution. It is an historic injustice that the cost of making these tips safe has not been fully funded by Westminster, and that the people of Wales are now expected to foot a large part of this bill.

Trade Union Workplace Access

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab) [R]]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered trade union access to workplaces.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I draw hon. Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests in relation to support from trade unions.

It is important to open with some stark context. The 14 years of austerity between 2010 and 2024 forced down real wages in the UK, a setback from which many working families are still recovering. That came atop a 40-year structural decline in the share of national wealth going to labour, coinciding with the erosion of trade union rights and with declining membership and falling union density. Against that backdrop, the most urgent task of the Labour Government is clear: raising living standards. Trade unions are central to that mission. They are the vehicle through which better pay, safer working conditions and fairer workplaces can be achieved. Equipping them effectively is fundamental to restoring balance.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Gentleman for securing the debate. I want to tell a short story very quickly, for the record. When as a 20-year-old I went to work for Henry Denny in Belfast, the guy says to me, “You have to be a member of the union.” I said, “I’m not so sure whether I want to be or not.” He said, “It’s compulsory.” What I learned then was that trade unions protect the workers. They ensure workers get their wages, and if workers have any problems with management, they are always there. Being a member of a trade union? I would recommend it.

[Andy McDonald]

The hon. Gentleman is perfectly right. It may have been compulsory, but it is certainly one of the better decisions that he has ever made.

The problem of trade union access to workplaces is long-standing. Employers have often restricted union representatives from entering their sites, particularly in high-profile industrial settings. The GMB’s attempt to access Amazon’s Coventry warehouse during its 2024 recognition ballot was met with resistance, highlighting the barriers that unions face even when legally seeking to organise.

Electricity Infrastructure: Rural Communities

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Westminster Hall

[John Lamont]

The hon. Member makes a key point, which I will come to later, that often these projects generate many jobs while the developments are being constructed, but the jobs disappear as soon as they are finished. That is unlike nuclear power, which the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) mentioned, with 300 jobs in Berwickshire alone directly connected to Torness power station. Those are permanent jobs, for people living and working in the local communities. We do not get the same employment opportunities with some of the current proposals for energy infrastructure.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

The hon. Gentleman is right to mention resilience and modern technology. I declare an interest as a member of the Ulster Farmers Union. The National Farmers Union and the UFU have indicated that infrastructure needs to be upgraded to ensure that whenever storms come, there will not be loss of electricity or broadband outages. Does he agree that we must ensure the livelihoods of our rural constituents and their businesses when we look to the future?

[John Lamont]

The hon. Member makes a key point about the need to invest in the electricity network, but it needs to be done in a coherent and organised way with buy-in from the local communities. That is what is lacking dreadfully with some of the proposals.

I will make some progress. The issues are clear. First, the proximity of pylons to people’s homes will impact their quality of life and the visual amenity of their community. Secondly, our countryside will be scarred, damaging tourism and leaving businesses that are already badly suffering out of pocket. It will also damage our environment and natural habitats. Agricultural land will be damaged or lost, impacting farms, reducing the amount of produce made in the Borders and harming our drive for food security. We are not saying that we do not want any energy infrastructure—we already have a lot in the Borders. It is about finding the right solution that protects our rural communities.

Significant Energy Infrastructure Projects: Suffolk Coast

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 16th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Suffolk Coastal) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the coordination of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects for energy on the Suffolk coast.

Suffolk Coastal is central to the UK’s energy ambitions. It is often said that up to 30% of Britain’s future energy is expected to be generated in, or transmitted through, my constituency. Suffolk Coastal is home to nationally and internationally important landscapes, including national landscapes, sites of special scientific interest, the Suffolk heritage coast and wetlands that form part of the east Atlantic flyway migratory bird route. Those are not simply scenic features; they underpin local economies and nature-based tourism, and they are vital to national commitments to biodiversity and environmental protection.

As the Minister will be aware, the nationally significant infrastructure projects that I will refer to are being delivered within a small, 10-mile radius, and sit in the heart of those national landscapes, including in nature reserves run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and on important national sites. They stretch from LionLink in Walberswick, which is just south of Southwold, down to Sea Link in Aldeburgh, then next door to Sizewell C, which is Europe’s largest energy project, and link into proposed converter stations in Friston and Saxmundham. Some of those projects have consent while others are going through the process as we speak.

What is remarkable—it is the point of the debate—is the lack of co-ordination between the plans. No attempt has been made to plan for the cumulative impact of the projects or to consider how better to co-ordinate them. In fact, in March 2024, National Grid published details showing that it has no intention to co-ordinate LionLink, led by National Grid Ventures, with the more advanced Sea Link project, led by National Grid Electricity Transmission.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Lady for introducing the debate. She is right to highlight the issues of coastal communities, where there are very many difficulties. My constituency suffers from coastal erosion, for example, which has been worked on, but there is also the potential to produce clean renewable energy. Does she agree that there is, perhaps, an opportunity for the Minister and the Government to put their minds and money into harnessing that energy for the benefit of all communities throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

[Jenny Riddell-Carpenter]

I thank the hon. Member for his contribution, and I look forward to the Minister’s remarks.

As I said, the multiple NSIPs in Suffolk Coastal are within just a 10-mile radius. They are being planned in an area of the country that is mostly served by B roads and country lanes. It seems remarkable that developers are being allowed to bring forward these proposals on some of England’s most important nature sites, when offshore alternatives could easily have been considered. I will focus in this debate on how Suffolk Coastal is being let down and why I am asking the Government to work with me to require the developers to look again at their plans and improve their proposals to minimise disruption to both people and the environment.

As the Minister will know, the previous Government totally vacated the leadership space when it came to our country’s energy and biodiversity planning, and the void was filled by energy developers. They decided to take the lead and were left to make proposals for totally unsuitable landscapes, all because it was cheaper than developing brownfield sites. What we have been left with is a series of unco-ordinated whack-a-mole projects on the Suffolk coast. We have an opportunity under the new Government to provide greater planning and leadership on these critical infrastructure challenges.

Employment Rights: Impact on Businesses

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 16th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank the hon. and gallant Member for Spelthorne (Lincoln Jopp) for his passion on this topic, which he illustrated incredibly well in his contribution. The issues that he raised are the ones that were in my speaking notes to highlight to the Government yesterday during the Employment Rights Bill debate.

What a pleasure it is to see the Minister in her place. I wish her all the best for the future. I am sure her energy and enthusiasm will help her along the way.

We are all very aware that small businesses are the backbone of the British economy, as the hon. Member for Spelthorne said. In March 2025, some 89.3% of businesses in Northern Ireland—72,465, to be precise—were micro-sized, with fewer than 10 employees. Only 2.2% of businesses had more than 50 employees. Four in 10 businesses —some 39.6%—had a turnover of less than £100,000, while a smaller 12.8% had a turnover exceeding £1 million.

These are not our Tescos and Waitroses, with their human resources departments and access to civil service occupational health services. These are small shops, for whom paying £250 for an occupational health referral body is a big deal. The impact on small businesses in my constituency is absolutely ginormous and will have great effect. They include local restaurants that cannot afford to pay their staff sick pay and get other staff in to replace them. They either step in themselves and do their own work through the night, or staff all work even harder than they already are to take up the slack, because they understand the financial pressures.

The Federation of Small Businesses has said that sickness absence already costs an average small employer more than £3,500 a year, or £5 billion across the economy. The Employment Rights Bill will see those costs rise dramatically from next April. We need a better focus from the Government and, with great respect, from the Minister and her Department, on helping small firms look after people and get them back into healthy work. I know the Government have said that is part of their policy, and I do not doubt it, but we need to see how that is going to work.

There is a clear impact for businesses, whose national insurance contributions for staff have risen, whose energy costs have spiralled out of all proportion, and whose staff wages have increased while the public’s disposable income has stagnated or decreased. The pressure on the high street is something that I have not experienced for a long time, but I see the pressures there—when people go, they are not replaced, and everyone is working that bit harder to make ends meet.

Tesco can weather the storm with its small profit margin but big reach, because that is how it works, but the local corner shop is not in that position. We must ensure that we support small businesses with the financial help to which the companies with a bigger turnover should not be entitled. I know that the Minister’s reply will give us some hope that I can pass on to my constituents back home and to the small businesses, which are a crucial part of the economic life of Strangford. Staff must be supported, but so too must small businesses. We need to step up now before the backbone of our economy breaks under the additional strain.

Employees deserve rights, but small businesses need support. We cannot have one without the other, so I ask the Minister how we can get that balance. How can we ensure that small businesses can keep employing people and will still be in business next year, while also ensuring that workers’ rights are protected?

Employment Rights Bill

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Consideration of Lords amendments
Monday 15th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Peter Kyle]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his thoughtful contribution, and for reflecting the voice of chambers, who do an incredible job right around our country—and around the world. I say to the chambers, and to him, that the Bill reflects the best standards that are already in use right around the country by the very best employers—indeed, by most employers. Those employers have nothing to fear and a lot to gain from this legislation.

On consultation, this is a Government who listen constantly, and we will continue to listen. On those measures for which an implementation phase is really important, there are, unusually, formal consultations in which businesses can engage. This is a listening Government and an acting Government, and we will deliver on our manifesto commitments.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

We welcome many aspects of the legislation, but I put this question on behalf of my small businesses. They say that sickness absence costs them £3,500 a year—it costs some £5 billion across all the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland—and they are worried that the legislation could dramatically raise their fees and costs for the next year. How will this Bill support small businesses that literally cannot afford to pay sick pay as well as hire someone in the place of the sick? That is a constructive question, and my small businesses need the answer.

[Peter Kyle]

In all the Front-Bench jobs I have had, I have enjoyed my exchanges with the hon. Gentleman, who is always constructive and well intentioned. I did not expect that we would enjoy that renewed relationship so soon in my new position. I say to him, and to the incredible businesses in his community, which I have had the pleasure of visiting, that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce. We intend to ensure the health and wellbeing of employees, and to ensure support for them in the workplace, structured in a way to get the very best out of them. That will be of benefit to employees, and certainly to employers as well.

Consumer Affairs

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Thursday 11th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. It has been a while since you chaired Westminster Hall; it is always a pleasure to see you and I wish you well. I thank the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) for leading the debate; he is right to highlight all the issues, as well as the examples in relation to his shopping.

I am a diabetic, so I should not be having chocolate, but the odd time that I do, I notice that there are fewer M&M’s in the bag and that a Flake is shorter, smaller and thinner than it was. That probably applies to all the others too, because the price of chocolate and other ingredients has risen. I understand the logic: to keep products at the same price, what is in the bag needs to be restricted.

That is an example of where consumer rights can come into play. Consumer rights are incredibly important, and I have no doubt that we have all had complaints from constituents in some capacity or other involving purchases. It is good to be here to discuss the issue and to make people aware of their rights.

I welcome the Minister to his place and wish him well in all he does. His appointment is a recognition of his ability and interest in the Chamber and outside. He and I share many of the same interests, including human rights and religious persecution. His new role is different from that, but I congratulate him on it.

The hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington referred to flights. I will be getting a flight—hopefully tonight—from London City to Belfast City. It happened to be the cheapest flight, which is the reason why we took it. We usually go from Heathrow. There are occasions when there are only two places left and the price is £640—that happens. Believe it or not, a flight that could be £200, £300 or £400 on one day, could be £640 on another day. We have no choice, because if we do not fly home, we will not get home—the options are very limited.

What about everybody else? One time I made a complaint and asked an urgent question in the Chamber on it. We all turned up for a flight at Belfast City airport, but it had been cancelled three weeks previously. Guess what: it was still showing on the board, we were cleared through security, and we had the boarding passes, but it was a non-existent flight. It was only when we got to the other side that we suddenly found out there was no flight and there had not been a flight for three weeks.

To be fair to British Airways, it reimbursed everyone on that flight. Even though the flight was showing on the board, I found out that it had been cancelled from a disabled guy who was taken through by assistance personnel. When he got through to the far side, he said, “Jim, this flight’s not on, you know.” I said, “What do you mean—it’s on the board?” He said, “No, it was cancelled three weeks ago.” Again, this was a case where consumer rights came into play. To be fair to British Airways, I had a meeting with the chief executive, who recognised the problem and the reason for it. He made sure that every one of the passengers that day was reimbursed or got another flight in lieu.

In Northern Ireland, we have Consumerline, where people can seek advice and report any issues that they have. I have to say that my office and I have a great working relationship with it. We have been in touch regarding faulty goods, scams, service issues and unfair contract matters.

Another notable organisation back home is the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, which is mainly for issues relating to energy, water, transport or postal services. The list of issues that comes before us as MPs is ginormous. The Consumer Council has also been crucial in providing support for parking fines, which have become an increasingly massive issue in my constituency. Indeed, not a week goes by that we do not have one or perhaps two parking ticket issues—it could be that someone has parked in a disabled section that is not marked, or perhaps there is no sign on the road.

We have to make sure that if a parking ticket is handed out, it is done within the legislation. For instance, when people park at a shopping centre in an area for certain people, or in a private car park, the law is often not clear, and there is an element of greyness. On many such occasions, we have contested parking fines and won, simply because the law is unclear. The ordinary man or woman who finds themselves with a parking ticket probably says, “Oh, I’ll just pay it,” but sometimes, they do not have to. There are occasions when they should make contact with the Consumer Council or Consumerline and check their rights.

I want to highlight a consumer rights issue that I have been dealing with in my office. I was approached by a young couple who had just purchased their first home—they called it their forever home—at the start of 2024. As hon. Members can imagine, they had saved for years—I know them personally—and paid a significant amount for their new build home. They were fortunate, probably, in this day and age to have a good deposit to get them on their way, but to this day, they are still having issues in relation to their snag list. Some 20 months later, minor issues are still unresolved.

Again, the Consumer Council and Consumerline have been very proactive and helpful in trying to sort those matters out. That matters, because after all the avenues have been exhausted, if the issues are still unresolved, the only route to go down is a legal one, which would add more cost for that young couple who just want to enjoy the home that they worked and saved so hard to purchase.

The hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington has previously raised the importance of transparency in pricing, especially online, and he mentioned it today as well. He is absolutely right. For example, with hotel or flight bookings, the add-ons are often left until the very end, and are not transparent. We see these offers of flights to, for example, Cyprus for £59, and then we find that there is an extra cost for baggage. If we want an aisle seat, that is another £20. Before we know it, that £59 has become £159. Those add-ons are an issue for consumer affairs. Those questions are asked in my office every week, as I suspect they are asked in the office of the hon. Member and other hon. Members. Prices are never included in one figure, which can leave the consumer extremely confused.

As I have noticed myself over the last few years, there is no doubt that goods and services are getting much more expensive. The hon. Member mentioned the issue of chocolate as an example; I have found that there are fewer peanuts in the bag. I love nuts, and Brazil nuts in particular, but I have noticed that they are getting smaller—perhaps the crop has not been good, but I suspect that is not the reason. It is because they are chopping them in half and into quarters, and there are fewer of them in the bag than there used to be. I can understand the logic behind it—it is to keep the cost the same, by reducing the amount in the bag—but that is an issue for consumer affairs. Is there somewhere people can go to? They need to have some contact and the ability to speak to support when they have a question to ask.

To conclude, organisations such as the Consumer Council are there for a reason. It is great that they are in place to support consumers, especially when large amounts of money have been paid. It is a bit of an initiation for the Minister today, but I look forward to what he will tell us. I hope that he will commit to ensuring that the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are protected, and that more will be done across these nations collectively so that people get value for money and decent services. It is what they pay for and what they deserve.

Hydrogen Supply Chains

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

As always, it is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship in Westminster Hall, Mr Betts. I thank the hon. Member for Worcester (Tom Collins) for leading the debate and for the many conversations in recent years surrounding the need for alternative methods to fossil fuels. There is no doubt whatever that hydrogen is a much talked-about method, so it is great to be here today to discuss these matters. I believe that we must commit ourselves to the net zero targets, and we must meet them, or try to. To do so, we must have a strategy that encompasses all of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

I am pleased to see the Minister, who has a passion for this issue, in his place. Maybe the fact that he is still here today tells us just how good a job he is doing. He is a safe pair of hands and a friend to us all, for he has a deep interest in this matter. I am also pleased to see the shadow Minister, who brings a spark to this debate in every way, as he does when he speaks in the Chamber.

Northern Ireland wants to play a role. We have strong potential for green hydrogen production, due to our significant offshore and onshore wind resources, especially surrounding the Antrim coast in the Irish sea. There are also interests in blue hydrogen, but for Northern Ireland specifically, green hydrogen is the focus for sustainability. Queen’s University has been to the fore in trying to promote the issue; I spoke to the hon. Member for Worcester beforehand and I know that he knows that, but maybe the Minister does not, although he is a regular visitor to Northern Ireland, and why not? What better place to go for work or indeed for a wee trip? It is important to have connections between universities and business, and the partnerships that come from that. Perhaps Government could focus on that as well. I know that the Minister does that regularly.

There have been discussions throughout Northern Ireland about hydrogen storage and the potential need for development. Northern Ireland’s main hydrogen storage development is the Islandmagee energy storage project, a unique salt cavern facility in County Antrim, in the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson). That is just an example of what we can use to move this development forward in the direction that it needs to go. That unit was initially planned for natural gas, but it has the potential to transition to hydrogen, supporting net zero goals.

We have heard of many developments in relation to hydrogen and transport over the last couple of years—my hon. Friend the Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell) referred to that in his intervention, and the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister) will do likewise in a few moments. The great thing about Wrightbus is that its net of employment applies not only to North Antrim; many people across all constituencies work for it and have helped to develop the project there through their work on the shop floor. Some of the UK’s companies have taken part in a project to inject millions into the economy and create thousands of jobs, and Wrightbus in Northern Ireland is one of them. It is a leading producer of hydrogen buses, which provide safe, reliable and cost-effective transport.

My hon. Friend the Member for East Londonderry was right to make the point about the travel chaos in London yesterday. What should have been a 15 or 20-minute journey took an hour and 20 minutes; the lady who works in our office had to leave home two hours earlier to try to get the bus connections—or even to get a bus. These are things that we should be looking at, not just because of this week but because of their ability to reduce the impact on the atmosphere and environment.

The progression to net zero will also bring countless jobs, offering great opportunities in terms of apprenticeships. My query to the Minister is what has been done to encourage apprenticeships. There was a great defence development strategy statement yesterday, which was good to hear, and out of that was coming jobs—but were apprenticeships coming out of that as well? Could the Minister tell us about apprenticeships within the hydrogen sector?

There are also numerous hindrances preventing hydrogen from emerging. There is the opportunity to establish strong supply chains, but there are some challenges, for example the high cost of producing and using low-emission hydrogen compared with fossil fuel alternatives. There is also some uncertainty surrounding the future applicability of hydrogen in different sectors. Globally, we need to be aware that there is so much competition. It is good to have this hydrogen debate, and to have a hydrogen strategy, but we also need to be competitive. We must take advantage of the opportunities that we can while we have the capability to do so. I ask the Minister, how we can keep those costs down and make it competitive for the future.

As we look to the future of energy, hydrogen offers one of the most promising, yet complex, paths to decarbonisation. It presents us with a clear opportunity to create cleaner industries, decarbonise transport and build a more resilient energy system across Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. I always think that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with all the regions together, can do it better, and I think the Minister will reinforce that in his summing up.

I look to the Minister to engage further with his counterparts in the devolved nations. I know he does so regularly, but it is always encouraging when the Minister says he has been in touch with Queen’s University Belfast, or with Wrightbus in Ballymena or wherever it might be, to ensure that we are doing things to progress and move forward as a collective—a collective that is better together in relation to our net zero supply chains.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Shanks]

My very next point was on the future of the network. It wasn’t, actually, but I will come to it now, because the hon. Gentleman made a very good point, which I meant to come back to. He is right, of course, that we need to invest in the grid—even if we were not embarking on this clean power mission, the grid is very much in need of upgrading—but we want to take the strategic planning of that much more seriously than it has been taken in the past.

We know that we need to build significant amounts of grid—the hon. Gentleman recognised the importance of that—but we also want to plan the future of the energy system strategically so that the grid follows a logical way to build out the energy system. His point about trying to make use of the abundance of clean energy to transfer it into hydrogen as an off-taker was well made. It will feed into the work on the strategic spatial energy plan. It is about how we best use all the energy system to our advantage. It is also about how we can reduce things like constraint payments and make use of it as efficiently as possible. That is an important point that we will take forward.

To conclude, our vision is clear: a thriving low-carbon hydrogen economy—one that decarbonises those hard-to-electrify sectors, strengthens our energy security and fuels good jobs and growth across the country—is at the heart of the Government’s mission.

[Jim Shannon]

I asked a question about the opportunity for apprentices. I know that the Government are committed to that; I have never had any doubt about that, but I want us to show where the opportunities may be. I know that the Minister is also committed to ensuring that all parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland can take advantage.

[Michael Shanks]

A key part of my conclusion was the useful challenge that there always is from the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) about ensuring that we represent all parts of the United Kingdom. He was right to point out earlier that it is a beautiful part of the country to visit. I confess I have still never been to Strangford, but there is still time.

The hon. Member is right on two other fronts. First, the skills strategy is all about unlocking the next generation of workers. We need to inspire people in school right now to see that we want them to be at the heart of the energy system of the future, and apprenticeships are crucial for doing that. We will create tens of thousands of jobs in the sector, but as part of that there has to be investment in apprenticeships. On his wider point, he knows that I enjoy the engagement with Ministers in devolved Governments across the country. We work closely with the Northern Ireland Executive. As I always say, the energy system is transferred in Northern Ireland, but there is a huge number of areas where we can learn from each other and work together to ensure that the people in Northern Ireland and Great Britain benefit from what we are trying to achieve, and we will continue to do that.

To conclude my conclusion, unless anyone else wants to intervene, we are firm in our commitment to working with industry. There is a huge opportunity here. This is an exciting moment for us to recognise—as we are doing with small modular reactors and with floating offshore wind—that we have the potential to be at the forefront of the next great thing in our energy system. It requires the strategy that we are putting in place and the long-term confidence for investment, and we will continue to work hand in hand with industry, investors, innovators, workers—