Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what ability the Government plans to retain to ensure that the Green Investment Bank operates according to its original purposes after that body's privatisation.

Green investment is what the Green Investment Bank (GIB) does and is where its value lies. It is clear from preliminary feedback that potential investors are interested in GIB precisely because of its unique green specialism and its existing forward business plan and pipeline of green projects. Investors will have sound commercial reasons to maintain GIB’s green focus and continue operating in accordance with its clearly stated green principles and highly transparent and robust green reporting practices.

As a key part of any sale discussions, potential investors will be asked to confirm their commitment to these values and to set out how they propose to protect them. We envisage this would involve new shareholders agreeing to:

• ensure GIB continues to invest in a way that achieves a positive green impact; and
• maintain GIB’s existing standards for reporting on its green investment performance as well as continue providing for independent assurance of this.

It is important to understand Government could not impose binding conditions on future owners of GIB to act in a particular way while also securing our key objective of removing state control over GIB so it can be reclassified to the private sector.