Speciality Steel UK: Insolvency
Debate between Sarah Jones and Andrew Snowden(2 days, 23 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Sarah Jones
My hon. Friend and I have spoken many times about this—she is such a champion for the industry, as are many colleagues. She is right to point to the importance to the country of the work at Stocksbridge. Of course, we will do what we need to do through the process of the official receiver to ensure that people get the salaries that they need. For the past couple of years, so many of those people have been on furlough—we want to turn that around. We believe that this viable industry is languishing unnecessarily. The Government will provide the right support through interventions such as our energy reduction measures, and work with the official receiver. I can tell her that multiple companies are interested and coming forward, and we need to establish how viable those offers are and what the best situation is. Of course, the official receiver must think of the best outcome for the creditors, but we take a close interest in that. My hon. Friend is right to point out the pensions issue. I know that there is uncertainty. The official receiver and Teneo are considering these issues now to see exactly what has and has not been paid so that we can unpick the pensions issue.
Mr Andrew Snowden (Fylde) (Con)
This is the second crisis in the steel industry in the past year. It impacts other commercially operated industries that are critical to our national security. In Lancashire, the failure to place an order for 25 Typhoon jets is risking thousands of jobs in the critical defence industry of BAE Systems. There is also a lack of join-up between Departments, which do not realise that the whole life-cycle of nuclear fuel manufacturing is equally critical for our national infrastructure and impacts on hundreds of highly skilled jobs in Lancashire at the Westinghouse Springfields site. Will the Minister update me on her work with the Ministry of Defence to ensure that commercially operated industries that are critical to our national defence capability and security are strategically supported to be sustainable in the future?
Sarah Jones
The hon. Gentleman is right to point out the importance of our defence industry and the need for us to support it. Of course, the industrial strategy outlined eight growth-driving sectors that we believe can be turbocharged with Government support—defence was one of them. We have published those sector plans, apart from the defence one, which will come shortly—he should look out for it. We have significantly increased funding for defence, which will lead to thousands of jobs across the UK. I will work closely with my colleagues in defence, particularly the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry, to ensure that we procure UK jobs where we can and support our industry to grow.
Scunthorpe Steelworks
Debate between Sarah Jones and Andrew Snowden(4 months, 4 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Sarah Jones
No, absolutely not, and I am disappointed that the hon. Member would speak in that way. As he knows, we are having a conversation about a potential deal that we believe is there to be done with British Steel.
On the wider issue, it is a fact that China produces 53% of the world’s steel, and we have huge issues with that, as the hon. Member knows. The tariffs have over-complicated the situation, which is why the Secretary of State is meeting the Trade Remedies Authority today, why we are looking at our trade strategy, and why we are talking to the Americans to make sure we can do a deal with them. We will continue to ensure that we have all the protection we need, in terms of stopping the onshoring of steel as much as we can. Those conversations will continue. The TRA is now looking at steel, and we expect those results quite soon.
Mr Andrew Snowden (Fylde) (Con)
The Minister used the interesting stat that 53% of the world’s steel is produced by China. If we look back at the lead-up to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the way that Russia started to dominate the nuclear fuel market in particular by pushing out western providers, we see that there is a reason why China and Russia are behaving this way: they want to control the raw materials that are critical for national security around the world. This House is debating the prospect of a Chinese-owned company turning off our blast furnaces in this country in a month’s time. That cannot be an acceptable position to be in. This has been asked several times, but it has not been answered: will the Minister commit to ordering the raw materials to keep those furnaces on, if necessary? She said in response to a question on primary steel that a consultation was under way on a strategy, and that we would look at what we needed to do. It is clear what we need to do: produce primary steel.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Sarah Jones and Andrew Snowden(5 months, 2 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Minister for Industry (Sarah Jones)
Nuclear power is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower. It is not just providing energy security, but driving billions of pounds in investment and creating thousands of highly skilled jobs. Great British Nuclear is on track to make final decisions on its small modular reactor competition this spring, while a final investment decision on Sizewell C will be made in the spending review.
Mr Snowden
Whether one agrees with the Government’s net zero targets or not, they will not be able to achieve them without nuclear energy playing a significant role, which is why I was delighted that the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State chose to launch their nuclear strategy in my constituency—I can only assume that my invite was lost in the post. A key part of the nuclear fuel strategy is the nuclear fuel industry in this country. From the aggressive actions of Russia and other countries that have pushed western commercial providers out and dominated elements of the nuclear fuel enrichment and manufacturing market, we see that it is ever more important for our national security that we develop whole-of-lifecycle nuclear fuel production. When will the Government announce the concrete steps that they will take, as part of the strategy, to improve the whole-of-lifecycle manufacturing of nuclear power?
