Speeches by Shanks.

“We want to improve regulations and processes for new nuclear projects while continuing to protect the environment. We will present a full Government response, and an implementation plan, by the end of this month, taking into account our national security and environmental considerations.”

“Of course, all projects that are consented and licensed have to follow the law, and the North Sea Transition Authority as a regulator makes that happen. I will not comment on projects that are currently going through the consenting process.”

“The right hon. Gentleman raises an important point. All the evidence points to the fact that the fire risk from batteries is less than in residential homes, but we take safety incredibly seriously. I recently convened a roundtable of those involved to look at what more we might do in the regulatory space, and DEFRA is …”

“As I have said repeatedly, any projects that are going through the planning system have to demonstrate community engagement and that they have engaged genuinely with that feedback. That is part of the process, and projects of any kind are assessed against that. I will not comment on individual applications for obvious …”

“Given that it is topical questions, I might struggle to say all the progress that is being made, but the Government have committed in our energy strategy and in decisions made by the Chancellor to fund hydrogen and carbon capture, to ensure that those are important parts of our energy mix. I will be visiting projects i…”

“I recently had a useful meeting in Aberdeen, in which the GMB participated, about building up the future of the North sea. What I never hear from Conservative Members is any support for industries that will invest in the North sea in the future, and in the tens of thousands of jobs that will go with it. Perhaps at some…”

“I visited Ratcliffe-on-Soar for the closure ceremony. It was a good example of a just transition done well, and an historic moment of consensus, delivering the phase-out of coal across our country. I am happy to meet my hon. Friend. I recently met the mayor to talk about the future of that site, which has huge potentia…”

“I think Electricity North West is considering exactly that question, looking at where the lines can be buried to avoid repetition of the issues that have been caused so far. I will follow up on that point in particular with it. I had a fantastic meeting with the hon. Gentleman yesterday to talk about Coniston and local…”

“Great Britain’s electricity distribution network is highly resilient and the Government work closely with industry to maintain that. Energy resilience is a top priority for the Government, which is why my Department will publish an energy resilience plan in 2026.”

“It was a wonderful trip.”

“It is an aspiration and a goal.”

“This is absolutely fundamental, Chair, to what we need to do going forward. The local power plan will be published soon, in weeks rather than months. At the heart of it, it makes that argument, which is that, as a Government, we care about the question of ownership for much more than just the megawatts going on the sys…”

“Ambition or target—I do not know. You can call me back if I am fortunate enough to be here in 2030 and ask me that question again.”

“I cannot give you examples of what is in a plan that has not been published yet.”

“You are absolutely right. That is the way forward. The consensus on climate action—I will say that rather than “net zero”—is fractured but not broken. It is exaggerated by Westminster politics. In the country there is a lot more consensus on this issue than you would believe by listening to some of the debates that we …”

“There are two examples that stick in my mind. One of my first visits was to the Isle of Eigg, which is a remarkable example because it is not connected to the grid at all. As a community, they have been able to have hydro, wind, solar and batteries working together to power the whole island, not just helping the househ…”

“It is a really good question. It will play a part in helping the system overall and helping deal with constraints as well. Quantifying that is difficult, because the scale we have at the moment is so low that, over the whole system, it has very little overall impact. There are two things we are determined to do as a co…”

“I partly want to be slightly careful. I am not an expert in planning and my Department is not shaping this policy in that space through the local power plans. I want to be slightly careful about that. The balance that I tried to get across earlier is that projects should be judged on their merits based on the impact th…”

“That is a really good question. I do not directly have as much to do with the international climate work, but I know that a lot of the conversations are shifting from the macro questions about our energy mix to the questions about how the transition affects communities. I was at the G20 in South Africa, and one of the …”

“There is a lot that we can learn from all of that. Sometimes by necessity countries have skipped to a much more flexible, localised approach. We are seeing a lot of development of solar around the world, for example, in communities that have not had electricity on that scale at all and are building up from that. There …”