Gas Storage Levels

Laurence Turner Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Michael Shanks]

I can give that assurance. Indeed, every month I have been in this job, I have been in Aberdeen, meeting oil and gas companies to discuss the issues. We are not going to agree on everything, but I have been very clear that there will be a long future for oil and gas in the North sea. Yes, we absolutely have said that we do not want to issue any new licences for new fields, but we will not revoke any existing licences. That means that there will continue to be work in the North sea for a long time to come.

I repeat that it is categorically untrue that our electricity or gas supplies have been at risk over the past week. We have robust systems in place, and they worked exactly as they should. Consumers lost absolutely no supply over the last few days, nor will they in the weeks and months ahead.

[Laurence Turner (Birmingham Northfield) (Lab)]

I draw the attention of the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests about my membership of the energy unions, GMB and Unite. In 2017, the then energy Minister, the noble Lord Harrington, said:

“the closure of Rough will not cause a problem with security.”—[Official Report, 27 June 2017; Vol. 626, c. 446.]

Will the Minister confirm that the five wasted years that followed before Rough was reopened at reduced capacity continue to impose restraints on the network? Will the Government take an open-minded approach to Centrica’s proposals to gradually convert that storage capacity to hydrogen?

[Michael Shanks]

These are commercial decisions for Centrica, although if it brings those decisions to us, we will of course look at them. Let me reiterate that the UK has a robust set of storage facilities to ensure security of supply. Rough is one of them, but at moments such as this, in the winter, it is not the most important, because it is the slowest to move gas into the system. The remainder are in an entirely robust state and will continue to deliver, but as I have said, what it chooses to do with its site is a commercial matter for Centrica.

Clean Energy Superpower Mission

Laurence Turner Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Siobhain McDonagh)]

Last but not least, I call Laurence Turner.

[Laurence Turner (Birmingham Northfield) (Lab)]

As a recent official of the GMB trade union, which has been mentioned in this statement, I welcome the Secretary of State and his team and officials to their place. How welcome it is to have a change of Government from the record of the last 14 years, with the ducking and delaying of difficult decisions on issues from nuclear to gas storage, and the exclusion for too long of workers’ voices from the decisions that affect the energy system. In opposition, my right hon. Friend established an energy transition working group to bring together trade unions and workers’ voices at the heart of energy plans. Can he confirm today that continuing that group in government will be an early priority for this new Administration?

[Edward Miliband]

I welcome my hon. Friend to this House and thank him for the work we did together in opposition on all these issues. As this is the final question, he ends on a really important point: this Government have a completely different attitude to the role that trade unions can play in the future of our energy system, and we are proud of it. If we are to make the energy transition, including in the North sea, and build a proper industrial policy for the future, we should do what every other self-respecting nation does and have trade unions at the heart of our policymaking and decision making. That is what this Government will do.