Great British Energy: Nuclear Development

Lord Alton of Liverpool Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

I appreciate that point of view, but I think it is a bit on the fringe of what this House and people in the industry think. We have to remember that once Sizewell C is geared up and producing energy, we expect it to make a saving. The noble Baroness can turn her nose up at this, but once it is online it is going to generate savings for the economy and consumers of £2 billion a year over 60 years. I think that is a good saving for the economy and for the British people. It is something that we need to continue to invest in.

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, given the announcement at the weekend that £200 million is going to be spent through Great British Energy to purchase solar panels from China, how can the Minister reconcile that with the amendment passed by your Lordships’ House that goods that may have been manufactured using slave labour in places such as Xinjiang would not be purchased by Great British Energy? Surely it would have been better to invest that money in British jobs and British production in making solar panels here.

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

We are talking to British producers and manufacturers of solar cells to see how we can invest in that and advance the technology on solar cells so that we do not have to rely on foreign imports. I get the noble Lord’s question on whether we are being as ethical as we possibly can be. We are building partnerships with key NGOs, including Anti-Slavery International, Rights Lab and Human Rights Watch, to ensure that civil society voices and expertise are embedded in policy design and enforcement. We need to make sure that we are not using slave labour to produce the solar cells that we will be using in this country.