Ban on Fracking for Shale Gas Bill

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Wednesday 19th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

Let me start by praising my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Ruth Edwards), who spoke so eloquently. I endorse every word that she said about the way in which the Government have handled this matter, and I share her sense of despair, frustration and fury. Although at present I frequently find myself saying, “We are where we are, and we have to get on with it”, I would much prefer the manifesto commitment to a moratorium on whose implementation I stood for election to endure. However, I have to welcome the Secretary of State’s commitment to hold a substantive vote on the process by which consent will be determined, and I echo the view expressed by others that it should be a free vote.

This is a polarising issue in my constituency. Opinion locally has always been broadly opposed to fracking, which I have always respected and taken note of, but there has also always been a vocal supportive minority, whose voices have become louder as higher energy costs have begun to be felt, even if fracking is not a solution to the problem of higher energy prices. Everyone in my constituency deserves to have their say, so my aim over recent weeks has been to ensure that the Government’s commitment to local consent was a meaningful one, and not one placed in the hands of companies such as Cuadrilla Resources.

Any process should be independent—indeed, a local referendum would be my preference—because all areas of the Fylde coast should be able to participate in the discussions, as they will feel the consequences. Blackpool, as a unitary authority, has no involvement in Lancashire’s planning decisions, but it will bear the seismological consequences just as much as the parish of Roseacre. I am particularly annoyed by suggestions of financial inducements that will be proffered by the shale gas companies trying to influence the decision making. They must not form part of the decision over consent.

Getting the consent system right, which means that it needs to be in a broad area, not a narrow parish within 15 metres of some pad, will allow all my constituents, either in favour or against, to feel that their voice was listened to. Perhaps fundamentally, carried out under my principles any rejection of fracking locally would be a permanent people’s “no”, on the record—not some temporary politicians’ “maybe” that could be reversed by yet another U-turn or new Government, which is what Labour’s ban, I am afraid, offers us. Let the people of this country put on the record their views about fracking in their local area. Then we as politicians should pay attention to that and act accordingly.

Energy Prices: Support for Business

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Thursday 22nd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

That is exactly what the review will cover, and it will be published in plenty of time for 1 April.

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

Obviously, across the House we welcome this package. We have seen many similar packages across Europe, but there has been much further debate in Europe about how to constrain demand, particularly on the part of industrial users. We cannot subsidise consumption without also trying to reduce demand, because otherwise we will cause immense risk of blackouts come this winter.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

The price signal remains very strong. Even with this support, prices have risen significantly and it is fair to assume that non-domestic users will be rational actors in the market.

Shale Gas Extraction

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Thursday 22nd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

His Majesty’s Government are on the side of people who need energy, businesses that need energy and an economy that needs to grow. The Labour party is in favour of no growth, coldness and high prices.

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

The Costa Coffee that I visited on Tuesday morning rivalled the House of Commons Chamber this morning for robustness of debate and strength of opinions expressed. I sought to reassure constituents that they would have the opportunity to have their say because local consent was required. I have been listening carefully to the Secretary of State this morning, but I have yet to hear any explanation of how local consent will be determined; indeed, any reference to local consent has been absent. Let me try once more: will my constituents be asked whether they want fracking, or not?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

As I have said, and as the Prime Minister has said, we will be looking to have the support of local communities. That is important. There will be a responsibility on companies, when they bring forward proposals, to work out how they can get that local consent. It seems to me pretty clear that that will involve giving money to people to encourage them, because they will want to have the benefit locally while they are doing something that helps the country nationally.

Shale Gas Production

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Tuesday 15th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Greg Hands]

The policy is clear and laid out in our 2019 manifesto. It is not possible for me at the Dispatch Box to comment on individual decisions as they may be being assessed by the Department, but the policy in 2019 is clear that there is a pause on future fracking developments.

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for what he has just said, which my constituents will welcome. Many in this House seem to think that I represent South Dakota rather than Blackpool, which has eight out of the 10 most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, all of which are deeply fearful of higher energy costs. Does not the Minister agree that this debate about fracking is a complete distraction from the task in hand of finding speedy, effective and efficient measures to reduce energy costs in the short run, not a further long-term gamble on unproven technology that is many years away from delivering anything meaningful to my constituents?

[Greg Hands]

My hon. Friend has represented Blackpool incredibly ably for the past 12 years and knows his community well. He makes, again, a strong point about the importance of community consent. He also makes the point about the speedy implementation of alternative, cheaper and cleaner forms of energy. That is why we announced, just a couple of weeks ago, a contracts for difference renewables auction on an annual basis to do precisely that.

Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Westminster Hall

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Fylde (Mark Menzies) on securing a vital and timely debate. I pay tribute to the unions who welcomed me and my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Chris Green) to the Springfields plant a few weeks ago, so that we could see for ourselves the role it plays in that community. I also pay tribute to the workers down the years—60 or 70 years—at Springfields, many of them my constituents. Along with Capenhurst and Calder Hall, the site has been one of the key drivers of our nuclear industry in the post-war era, underpinning so much of our economic development.

The domes of Dounreay might be more worthy of heritage protection but they relied on Springfields. The current fleet of nuclear reactors also relies on Springfields in the here and now, but the footprint and the numbers employed at the site have declined over time. Employment is now in the hundreds, not the thousands, and cannot afford to be lowered further.

We need to look at Springfields’ future. We know that the ultimate parent owners have uncertain intentions, at best, about the future of the site, so policy needs to move at pace. We have heard that advanced gas-cooled reactor closures are likely to be brought forward, creating a gap around 2024 before demand for nuclear fuel increases once more, as new reactors come on stream.

I know that the Government have a nuclear fuel working group. I welcome that, but working groups come in many forms and shapes. Every Department has a multiplicity of them. Some of them operate without a Minister even being aware. I know from my own time as a Minister that, if it was moderately important, I might try to attend the initial meeting to set the agenda and make it clear that it mattered to me. If it was really important, I attended every single meeting. I urge the Minister to send a signal to and sit on the shoulders of her no doubt fantastic officials to attend every single meeting. This is really important, not just for Springfields but for our future national security.

We rightly hear a lot about net-zero, green recovery and the levelling-up agenda—sometimes too much for my personal taste—but here in the Lancashire countryside is the living embodiment of those three agendas. I have always argued as an MP for more high-quality, high-skilled jobs on the Fylde coast, near my relatively deprived coastal town of Blackpool and Cleveleys. Here they are, just a few miles away, in the Lancashire countryside. There can be found the National Nuclear Laboratory and a clean fuels technology pod. The site trains many apprentices, as we have heard, including for firms in my constituency, such as Victrex.

We are in a state of concern because we do not know what the future holds. We risk losing it, like the British empire, in a fit of absence of mind. But it is a vital national capability. It cannot be recreated from scratch. If we lose the golden thread, the continuity of the skills base, we will end up dependent either on the French Framatome or—in my view, unlike that of the hon. Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick), even worse—on the Chinese.

Framatome already supply Sizewell B. They already have the contract for Hinkley Point C. In my view, there should be a guarantee of UK fuels for UK reactors written into all future contracts. Framatome already get through processed uranium from Russia. Springfields could do that. The site cannot just be mothballed in the hope that a future Government might wake up. If Springfields really is seen by the Government as a piece of critical national infrastructure, as I firmly believe that it should—and I would welcome a commitment to that effect from the Minister—that has to mean something in practical policy terms. Warm words today will not be enough for my constituents, who want an action plan to bridge the nuclear gap, secure their own jobs and secure the nuclear future of this country.

Solar Flares and Electricity Grid Reliance

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Wednesday 18th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to rise for my first Adjournment debate in many years—once a decade perhaps.

I am a little concerned that people might think that I am trying to be the new Lembit Öpik of this Parliament, in that he was famously obsessed with asteroid impacts that never occurred. Equally, people might think I have been spending far too much time during lockdown watching boxsets, such as “Cobra” on Sky Atlantic, which I was wholly unaware of until I watched an episode this weekend. I assure the House that it had no impact at all on me picking this particular topic.

People might wonder what on earth I am on about. What is a solar flare? A solar flare, also known as space weather or coronal mass ejection, is an event that has the potential to knock out our electricity grid by causing voltage instability, power transmission network instabilities and transformer burnouts. A modest one in Quebec in 1989 did just that for a few hours to the Hydro Québec grid.

A bigger solar flare is likely to be around the corner, even if we do not know when. The last so-called biggie was in 1859, called the Carrington event. That was a very different era, with fewer consequences. Events with limited impacts have occurred throughout the past 100 years, but as we become more reliant on technology, they have an impact on navigation systems, aviation and satellites, increasingly. As with Los Angeles atop the San Andreas fault, another episode is both expected and unavoidable.

It is important to prepare, and with the knowledge that we will have very little warning that such a solar flare is occurring before we suffer the consequences. Government say that we are the best prepared in the world but, without being unkind to them at the moment, those are the precise words used of our pandemic preparations. It is therefore worth exploring in greater detail whether we are truly prepared for any solar flare, let alone the right sort of solar flare. The concern in the UK is that, while there was some pandemic preparation, it was for the wrong sort of virus.



The Civil Contingencies Unit might be able to maintain the national strategic stockpile of body bags. The NHS might well have tried to foresee every strain of virus, and ensure that vaccines were available, but the collision of plans with reality is always the point at which flaws are revealed. I do not mean that we should be looking at websites for survivalists and preppers, or stocking up on tinned food—we have had enough panic buying this year. However, we should consider those risks that the scientific community believes to be worth mitigating.

It is fair to ask how far the Government have progressed since the 2015 space weather preparedness strategy. As good as it is to know that solar flares are on someone’s radar somewhere in Whitehall, some of its relaxed conclusions may need re-testing. For example, the document rather blithely states:

“Some of this resilience is not the result of planning for this risk but good fortune.”

It gives me slight pause for thought that we are relying on good fortune to see us through future space weather.

To me, the golden thread stretches from the Met Office alerting the Government to the imminence of a solar flare, to the National Grid then having a limited period of time—if any—to implement mitigating measures.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

The hon. Gentleman’s coastal region has the potential to suffer the same problems from solar flares as my coastal region, and I am pleased that he has brought this forward for the House’s consideration. Is he aware that coastal and more rural areas like both of ours would be worst hit? We need to ensure that we are not left languishing, waiting for replacement transformers. Does he further agree that planning should include specifics for coastal areas in particular?

[Paul Maynard]

I was fascinated to see how the hon. Gentleman would respond to the challenge of this topic in an Adjournment debate and he has surpassed my expectations. I urge him to speak to EirGrid, which is the grid that covers Ireland. I am sure it will be interested in explaining to him what actions it is taking. But there are issues we have to consider. The 2015 space weather preparedness strategy indicates that the nearest radiation monitor to the UK is in Belgium. Can the Minister confirm whether that remains the case, and whether our decision to pull out of all EU agencies in any way jeopardises our access? Either way, what steps have been taken to develop sovereign capability in that regard? When was the last Met Office review of warning systems for space weather, and what role would he anticipate for the UK Space Agency?

The British Geological Survey has three operational magnetic observatories. Can the Minister confirm that that remains the case, and explain how resilient they are in and of themselves to space weather? The 2015 review described a number of priorities for future investment. Can the Minister update the House on what publicly funded research has now commenced on space weather, as per the strategy? Can he update me further on what progress has been made in working with international partners?

The Government’s 2015 report stated

“the GB power grid network is highly meshed and has a great deal of built in redundancy. This potentially makes it less susceptible to space weather effects than power grids in some other countries. Over recent years a more resilient design for new transformers has been used to provide further mitigation.”

That is all very positive, you might think, but a 2013 report by the Royal Academy of Engineering painted a slightly different picture:

“Since the last peak of the solar cycle, the Great Britain transmission system has developed to become more meshed and more heavily loaded. It now has a greater dependence on reactive compensation equipment such as static variable compensators and mechanically switched capacitors for ensuring robust voltage control. Thus there is increased probability of severe geomagnetic storms affecting transmission equipment critical to robust operation of the system.”

That is a little less positive.

Right now, National Grid seems to be focusing on hanging on to its role as the electricity system operator, as well as balancing expanding offshore wind farms and building interconnectors to them. Does it have the bandwidth that it needs to keep checking whether its network of transformers can withstand an event of space weather? Back in 2015, it calculated that some 13 transformers were at risk, and the likes of the US are stockpiling back-up transformers. National Grid is supposed to have spare transformers, but it is not clear how many. If we were to need more, do we even have the industrial capacity to build them, notwithstanding the eight to 12-week lead-in time, and the need to transport them by road to their destination? What more can Government do to assist increasingly commercially oriented companies such as National Grid in this regard, and what progress has been made on developing transportable recovery transformers, as was suggested as far back as 2013? What progress does the Minister believe National Grid is making on installing such mitigating inventions as series capacitors and neutral current blocking devices? Interconnectors are a good thing in themselves. They are also direct current equipment, and as such are not affected. However, during a solar flare, they may be affected, because the convertors to alternating current at either end will come under risk. As we develop ever more interconnectors, what steps is the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy taking to ensure that those new interconnectors are made as resilient as they can be? Crucially, can I ask when the last national risk assessment update was conducted by the Government?

Some dangers never come to pass—Y2K passed without incident—but just occasionally, I believe it is worth posing the question “What if?” and not just trusting that it will all be fine, because that is the answer we want to hear and the alternative is perhaps far too unpalatable. Covid-19 teaches us many lessons about preparing for worst-case scenarios, and making sure that we assess all possible outcomes must surely be one of the key lessons that we learn. I look forward to learning what the Minister has to say.