Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill

My Lords, it is an honour to be moving the first amendment in our Committee deliberations on the ...

My Lords, I will make just a brief intervention. I do not disagree at all with the noble Lord’s a...

My Lords, before we begin, I understand that the noble Lord, Lord McNicol, is unfortunately unwel...

What I was trying to ask is whether BEIS is getting itself into gear—and I realise that the Gover...

I am sure that this is upmost in the minds of the Secretary of State and the Energy Minister. The...

Before the Minister sits down, I had hoped that she would have said that the Bill had been drafte...

I take the noble Baroness’s point. Indeed, the Bill has been drafted in a technology-agnostic way...

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Baroness for her response and for the interventions on ...

I hesitate to interrupt, but I was relating only to fusion, rather than fission, in my comments.<...

I accept that clarification, of course. With regard to fusion, I accept that successive Governmen...

Moved by

Baroness Wilcox of Newport

2: Clause 1, page 1, line 15, at end insert—

My Lords, I begin my comments by thanking my noble friend Lord McNicol for the substantial work h...

My Lords, first I should apologise for not being able to take part in the Second Reading of the B...

My Lords, we are getting to the important issue—quite rightly raised by the noble Lord, Lord Vaux...

My Lords, I agree with the amendments put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Vaux of Harrowden. The ...

My Lords, I offer support to Amendments 11, 22 and 24 in the name of noble Lord, Lord Vaux of Har...

My Lords, as well as of course supporting the amendments spoken to by my noble friend Lady Wilcox...

My Lords, I will speak briefly on this group, particularly to Amendments 2 and 9 in the name of t...

First, I thank everyone who contributed to this important and well-structured debate. I also pay ...

I thank the Minister for his reply and the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, for agreeing with me that we mu...

Moved by

Lord Foster of Bath

3: Clause 2, page 2, line 8, at end insert “and

(b...

My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Oates and—I am sure—with his agreement, I beg to move...

My Lords, I wish to speak to Amendments 17 and 20 in my name, which have been linked with this gr...

My Lords, there is a Division in the Chamber. The Committee stands adjourned for 10 minutes.

My Lords, in the circumstances, all voting having taken place, let us resume. The noble Lord, Lor...

I am grateful to you, Lord Chairman. As I was saying, my Amendment 17 paves the way for my Amendm...

My Lords, I apologise for my delay in arriving; I misunderstood and thought that the Committee wa...

The proponents of this amendment are trenchantly opposed to nuclear power. They are proposing as ...

I am not sure why my noble friend is so surprised that the Liberal Democrats have moved this amen...

Yes, indeed. In 2010, the Liberal Democrats in the coalition Government proposed that 10 new nucl...

Perhaps the noble Viscount will explain how the Labour Party in government has made some of the b...

No, I am not in the business of explaining that. There has never been consensus in the party but,...

We all agree with the principle that the polluter pays. I believe that we also have a principle i...

My Lords, I had rather a nice time working with the Liberal Democrats in the Cameron Government, ...

My Lords, my Amendment 42 to Clause 40 is loosely related to decommissioning, which is why it is ...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 44 and 45 in my name. They have essentially the same aim as...

It was just that you were wrong.

Well, on many issues, such as the climate emergency, the nature crisis, concern about air polluti...

My Lords, I apologise for not being present at Second Reading, and this is the first time I have ...

Before the noble Baroness sits down, perhaps she would acknowledge that the circumstances in whic...

Perhaps the noble Baroness would like to comment on the completely and utterly irresponsible spre...

The noble Baroness directed that to me, so I will point out that, yes, the artillery shells did n...

Which do you think is more impactful—an artillery shell, or an airliner or F14 fighter flying int...

My Lords, of course, the problem is actually flooding, as was shown at Fukushima—and bad maintena...

We are doing series building. The existing Hinkley Point is two reactors built in series, and the...

I can see the Government Benches starting to go for a refreshment break; never mind. I am trying ...

My Lords, this group of amendments centres on the important aspects of nuclear waste and the deco...

My Lords—

Oh, no.

Yes, I know—it’s boring hearing the facts, isn’t it? I apologise for not catching the noble Baron...

It seems to have been relatively stable in Scotland.

I am sure that the noble Lord’s colleagues from the Scottish National Party will remind him of th...

What about Portugal?

Let us try Portugal. The Duke of Wellington was required to liberate Portugal from Spanish and Na...

When the noble Lord says that there should be no cost to the public purse, is that in regard only...

The noble Lord is almost certainly right. That ship has sailed, to say the very least. In phases ...

Before the Minister responds, I would be interested in whether we should have a review of the soc...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 3, 17, 20, 42, 44 and 45, laid by the noble Lords, Lord Oat...

Will the Minister clarify her response on Amendment 20? If the cost of decommissioning, including...

All I can say is that all these issues will be negotiated up front in the agreement that we make ...

I am sorry to press this further, but of course there will be negotiations and some sort of a dea...

I do not think that that assertion is correct, because my understanding is that once the nuclear ...

I entirely accept what the noble Baroness is saying, but circumstances will change and there will...

What I can say is that the Government will meet all our obligations to communities in decommissio...

When the Minister was answering on Amendment 42, I think that she confirmed the existence of the ...

I am told that Section 67 of the 2008 Act already provides for this, because the totality of the ...

But the whole point of Clause 40 is to create an exemption, so that share security rights that ar...

I am happy to explore this further out of Committee.

I thank noble Lords—some more than others—for their contributions to this debate. I particularly ...

Is it not the case, when we are dealing with the disposal of waste, that more than 90% of it is a...

I have heard this from others, and the argument seems to be, “Well, we’ve created such a mess alr...

My Lords—

I say with respect to the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, that she has intervened on many occas...

Moved by

Lord Foster of Bath

4: Clause 2, page 2, line 14, leave out from “project” t...

My Lords, I begin by declaring a couple of interests. First, I should place on record that I live...

My Lords, I am second to none in my concern for the escalating costs of past nuclear projects—lar...

I have enormous respect for the noble Lord—indeed, I think that he has asked some very pertinent ...

What I am saying is that, if the Secretary of State decides to publish his value for money assess...

I quite agree with what the noble Lord, Lord Howell, has just said; indeed, I feel somewhat pre-e...

That is not what the amendment says.

Be that as it may, when we talk of value for money, we usually have in mind the amount of money w...

There is a concept in economics—which I am sure the noble Viscount is aware of—of opportunity cos...

That is exactly what I have been talking about.

Exactly. My point about it is that, first, it is the Government’s Bill says there will be this as...

Let me answer that. Looking at the alternatives proposed by the Liberal Democrats, I could go int...

I am sorry to intervene on the noble Viscount’s private discussion with the Liberal Democrats, bu...

My discourse on renewables would have been on the extraordinary cost of having to accommodate int...

My Lords, I will speak briefly on Amendment 4, as much of what I was going to say has already bee...

My Lords, I will concentrate in particular on Amendment 6, addressing nuclear outages, and Amendm...

When we embarked on our nuclear build, we also took government money to build our hydroelectric p...

I regard this amendment as a complete blind. Indeed, the figures that have been quoted do not tal...

My Lords, there is a Division in the Chamber. The Committee will adjourn and return as soon as ag...

As I was saying, large nuclear power stations are the only proven technology available today whic...

Geothermal.

Can I please proceed uninterrupted, then we can have a real set-to later?

Nuclear power pla...

I will not respond to that hugely, except to say that the really important amendment, which I thi...

If I could interject, we are objecting to the complete exclusion of nuclear, which is the agenda ...

The answer to intermittency comes back to opportunity cost. As I said at Second Reading, the most...

No, I do not, but that is not the point. Continue.

There are all sorts of ways of dealing with intermittency. Interconnectors have been quite effect...

My Lords, surely no one is suggesting that these are alternatives, or if they are then that is no...

The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, has talked about the cost of energy. I agree with him that it is v...

My Lords, before the Minister concludes this debate—oh, I beg your pardon.

Sorry, I have been trying to find a space to get into a number of amendments here. On the debate ...

My Lords, I will speak very briefly indeed. I hate to disagree with my friends in the Green Party...

My Lords, as in the previous group, we have heard a variety of views trenchantly expressed. The L...

I have started so I will finish. Amendment 10 would require the Secretary of State to gain assura...

I thank everybody who has spoken in yet another wide-ranging debate on energy policy—I definitely...

There is a Division in the House. The Committee will adjourn and resume as soon as agreed after t...

Moving on to the second part of Amendment 16, the Government are in full agreement that nuclear c...

My Lords, I am enormously grateful for the opportunity to listen to so many noble Lords who have ...

There is a Division in the House. The Committee will adjourn and return as soon as agreed after M...

As I was saying, we come to the second string of things that were debated, in relation to the cri...

Like all government documents, they will be published at the appropriate time, and I will be sure...

We have had a masterclass in defining things such as the value for money study; we are getting a ...

Moved by

Lord Oates

5: Clause 2, page 2, line 14, at end insert “and has laid a repor...

My Lords, I will speak in particular to my Amendment 5, but I support all the amendments in this ...

Before I formally call this amendment, I need to inform the Committee that there is a mistake on ...

My Lords, I rise very briefly. In the last group, I mentioned some of the countermeasures to the ...

My Lords, I will speak very briefly indeed. I have added my name to Amendment 27 in this group al...

My Lords, I am afraid that I cannot be quite as brief as the noble Lord because I have a number o...

I rise to speak briefly to Amendments 5 and 12 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Foster of Bath...

My Lords, this group relates to a broad range of transparency measures relating to project cost, ...

I will start with Amendments 5 and 27, laid by the noble Lords, Lord Foster, Lord Wigley, Lord Oa...

My Lords, I will speak briefly as time is marching on. I think the Minister told us that the reas...

Moved by

Lord Foster of Bath

14: Clause 3, page 2, line 36, at end insert—

“(fa...

My Lords, quite rightly, the Bill before us requires a degree of consultation. In the designation...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow that powerful and clear exposition by the noble Lord, Lord F...

My Lords, I support the amendments and the principle of consultation, particularly with local aut...

My Lords, there has been a lot of consultation about Sizewell C and there is, of course, a nuclea...

I am grateful to noble Lords for tabling their amendments on consultation. I declare that I too a...

I thank the noble Lords, Lord Foster and Lord Foulkes, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, for ...

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her response, but I genuinely did not understand it a...

Moved by

Lord Oates

33: Clause 13, page 11, line 27, at end insert—

“(A1) The p...

My Lords, Amendment 33 and the subsequent amendments in this group seek to ensure that the Govern...

My Lords, I should have started by apologising for not being able to speak at Second Reading. I h...

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Oates, for tabling these amendments, which bring us back to...

I realise that time is getting on, so I will be as brief as possible. I thank the noble Lords, Lo...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. I am afraid that I am not entirely reassured by it,...

Moved by

Baroness Wilcox of Newport

39: Clause 32, page 24, line 28, at end insert—