Newport Wafer Fab Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Adonis
Main Page: Lord Adonis (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Adonis's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(1 year, 9 months ago)
Lords ChamberI agree with the noble Lord. That is why in 2016 we set up the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult, with £50 million of funding. Since then, it has initiated over £100 million of projects and collaborative projects which have generated or saved over 4,700 jobs in the UK. Therefore, we are very active in this space. This decision has no implications for that investment, which will continue. It was a quasi-judicial decision on national security grounds, which is what the Secretary of State is required to do.
Are there any other national security investigations of this kind under way?
The noble Lord knows that I cannot comment on other live cases until final orders are made. I can give him some figures from the National Security and Investment Act report, published in March. The NSI unit received 222 notifications and 17 applications were called in. Since then, we have made 10 final orders, and acquisitions have been unwound or blocked on three occasions.