Speeches by Downie.

“What would you like to see that guidance say? What should the role be of Government in that? What should that guidance say and how strong would it be? How do you assess the current threat?”

“Does the Minister agree one reason we need to see lower energy bills in Scotland—and that has been blocked—is the SNP’s ideological objection to nuclear power? I recently received a written answer from the Minister for Energy regarding a study by GB Energy to assess Scotland’s full potential for nuclear power. Will the…”

“The hon. Gentleman talks about the North sea industry and ideology. What were his views when his Government were in coalition with the Green party, which wilfully wanted to destroy those jobs immediately overnight because of ideology? Did he support that Government coalition?”

“T6. Last week I met pupils from Pittencrieff primary school, Dollar academy and Queen Anne high school in my constituency to talk about how to keep them safe online. They were very much in favour of some restrictions to make sure that they were safe on social media but were very cautious of age-based bans. Will the Sec…”

“Do you think those controls or the process by which that is decided up to this point has been strong enough to prevent technology from elsewhere perhaps being in our energy system without us being fully aware of the implications of that? Or do you think that it needs to be tightened further for these kinds of projects …”

“In relation to that, and to go back to where we started in the beginning, when we are talking about the new technology that is being used, how are we making sure that we are protecting supply chains and materials that are used? I am particularly thinking of any technological aspects and components that are manufactured…”

“You would envisage that being paid through bills rather than general taxation, which has been a theme we have talked about a lot this afternoon.”

“What options is the Department exploring for where the costs of those very large-scale projects—beneficial though they are—might be borne?”

“I was in Edinburgh.”

“Picking up on some of what Polly was talking about, what impact on bills can we expect from carbon capture storage, long-duration energy storage or hydrogen projects in the future?”

“Is one of your options to maintain the price cap at a level? If prices look to be extending far higher after this monitoring period, would “whatever support is needed” mean holding that down? I understand your point about assurance, but people want to know what kind of support, and in what areas, they can expect the Go…”

“On my other question, when you say, “whatever support is needed”, what are you looking to achieve? What is the aim of a Government saying that they will do whatever is needed?”

“Finally, relating to that, we are now in a context where we are seeing price rises and energy debt become a problem for all of our constituents. Prices grew by around 9% in 2025 alone. In your introduction you talked about the Government providing whatever support is needed. The Chair tried to press you a little bit on…”

“Given the complexity of the system, is it not about trying to explain to the public how it works in a better way?”

“We have heard evidence that change in the electricity system moves at a glacial pace. We have a system that, probably, none of us likes and that none of us thinks works very well, that is not effective and that we are trying to change, but we are not entirely sure how to do that without watching the big block of Jenga …”

“Thank you. Let us move on to talk about where profit currently lies in the energy system more generally—which has come up with a number of witnesses. Who currently benefits from the complexity of the system in energy and the way that the market is set up? Where does the profit lie?”

“NESO’s suggestion was that around £2 billion a year would be an acceptable curtailment cost.”

“At that earlier session I asked the witnesses from NESO what they felt was an acceptable level of curtailment costs. Do you have an acceptable or expected level that you think they should be at in the future?”

“You were hanging an awful lot on the curtailment costs dropping wildly in the future.”

“Minister, just to go back very briefly to when you were talking about curtailment and constraint costs, a couple of weeks back we had evidence from NESO representatives. They did not believe that curtailment costs would ever actually drop; they saw them as part of a natural cycle. You talk about the role of those costs…”