Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Western Excerpts

Tuesday 16th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Greg Hands)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his long-standing interest in this question. He will certainly know that, although nuclear is 16% of our current electricity generation, 12 of the 13 current nuclear power plants will be decommissioned or will no longer be producing by 2030. It is absolutely vital that we renew our nuclear capability, and I look forward to my right hon. Friend helping and supporting us in that effort.

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

T5. A month ago, the Secretary of State claimed that he had not commented on the Aquind project, yet two years before he had actually written to Alexander Temerko, just three days after seeing him at the Conservative conference, to confirm the Government’s support for the project. Will the Secretary of State now correct the record, confirm that he has indeed commented on the Aquind project and recuse himself from the decision-making process?

[Greg Hands]

Mr Speaker—[Interruption.] I will answer that question, because the Secretary of State is due to make a decision on the application by 21 January 2022, and the Secretary of State of course has a quasi-judicial role in determining this live planning application so it would not be appropriate to comment on specific matters regarding the proposals as that might be seen as prejudicing the decision-making process.