Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to offer AI data centre investors shorter wait times for electrical grid connections.

The Government is reforming the electricity grid connections process to reduce waiting times and accelerate connection offers for strategically important projects, including AI infrastructure and data centres. Working with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator, we are moving to a more efficient connections regime that prioritises viable projects which are ready to progress. These reforms will remove stalled schemes from the queue and make better use of available network capacity while maintaining a fair and robust process for all users of the network. Through the AI Energy Council, the Government is exploring resilient, sustainable and scalable grid connections.