Oral Answers to Questions

Tommy Sheppard Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

4. What recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on support for renewable energy in Scotland.

[Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)]

6. What recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on support for renewable energy in Scotland.

[Marion Fellows (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP)]

12. What recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on support for renewable energy in Scotland.

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[John Lamont]

This Government fully recognise the opportunity that hydrogen presents as part of our shift in energy focus, and we will continue to work with the sector to deliver that.

[Tommy Sheppard]

Billions of pounds of renewable energy projects are currently stalled because there is no capacity to connect to the national grid. Some companies have been told that it will take 15 years. The Government’s failure to invest in interconnectors and grid capacity is not only hindering investment, but is harming the achievement of net zero. Given this failure, on top of the failures with connection charges and with hydrogen, does it not make a compelling case to transfer responsibility for energy supply and distribution to Scotland, where we can get the job done?

[John Lamont]

The answer is certainly not independence. The answer is ensuring we are doing all we can to reduce connection timescales as a priority. As well as accelerating the timelines for building new network infrastructure, that is also about the process for new projects to connect to the grid, such as how the connection queue is managed. To address that, we will be publishing a connections action plan in the summer, setting out actions by the Government, Ofgem and network companies to accelerate connections for renewable projects and other energy network providers.

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[The Deputy Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight those brilliant figures, which show that we have now jumped to fourth best in the world for reading. I certainly see this in schools; it is much more demanding than it was in my day, and that is a tribute to the ministerial team who have done a fabulous job. I will of course examine the details of the ten-minute rule Bill to which he refers.

[Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)]

Q9. It is an open secret that many in the Conservative party would wish to roll back the democratic gains of devolution, either in part or completely. The noble Lord Frost, a former Minister and the architect of the disastrous Brexit agreement—I believe he is now seeking a safe Tory seat in this Chamber—recently let the cat out of the bag when he said that the Government should“review and roll back some currently devolved powers.”Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree with him?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The only thing that will destroy devolution is a vote for independence in Scotland, as advocated by those on the SNP Benches.