Speeches by Shanks.

“I am not responsible for sustainable aviation fuel, so I do not have all the detail here. The Department for Transport takes a lead on some of this. I think we will weigh up the options for Grangemouth in terms of the speed that something could be delivered and the viability of the project in the current regulatory fra…”

“Again, I am sorry, I cannot go into the detail because it is not in my brief. I think the HEFA cap is a question for DEFRA. I know it is something that we are looking at across Government and, of course, the SAF Bill will be looking at some of these questions as well. It is not something in my brief, I am afraid.”

“We are working together on a range of things, but individual Departments have a lead responsibility for policy on specific things. SAF is not in my Department. I do not want to speak on behalf of a different Department, so I think following up with DEFRA or the Department for Transport might be more useful. Clearly, wh…”

“They are working together, but again, if we were to change the SAF mandate in the UK, we could not change it just for Grangemouth, so there are wider considerations, and there are other refineries that may want to work on SAF production as well. I would just caution against the idea that enacting all the Project Willow…”

“I think I answered your question by saying I have not done an assessment of that, which is true because I am not the Minister responsible for aviation fuel. What I would say, in a general sense, is that our approach across Government is that we are going to co-operate with China where we can, and we are going to challe…”

“It is a good question. Some work has been done with the industry bodies looking at how we share more of those opportunities publicly. It is a challenge. We discussed this at a recent meeting of the Offshore Wind Industry Council, of which I am the vice-chair. For obvious reasons—and I understand why—newspapers are alwa…”

“It is an important question. One of the topics discussed at a roundtable I recently had in Aberdeen was not about how the Government communicates their plan, but how we have workers and communities at the heart of shaping that plan. I think it is important to start from that point. The Government have a critical role h…”

“I do not think it is, and I think it is quite wrong to make the comparison. The Government have stepped in to fund the official receiver to do its work as part of the insolvency process. That is not where we were with Grangemouth, so I think that is quite an inaccurate characterisation. We had to do that, because if we…”

“It is an important question. The starting point is to say that we have reset the relationship with the Scottish Government on a practical level. We are obviously always going to have political disagreements, but we want the same outcomes on certain day-to-day things. In fact, energy policy is broadly one where we agree…”

“I think this goes to the heart of the balance we will have to make. It also goes to what we said in the consultation on the future of energy in the North Sea, where that climate leadership point, a science-led approach, is important and will be taken into account. The Supreme Court has expanded the scope to the end use…”

“It is important to say—and I know this might sound like I cannot give a direct answer—each application will be decided on a case-by-case basis. The problem with trying to suggest that there is a scoring system on which I can give you a clear answer is that it misses the individual nuances of applications and how they w…”

“I have had no correspondence with any of the developers. I would say it is very likely, but that is not from any direct insight I have. It is just an assumption.”

“I am not going to make any comment on those applications. What we have announced is a process, where we came into Government with the decision that had been made by the previous Government. The Supreme Court’s ruling in that judgment was that it had to take account of the scope 3 emissions, the end-use emissions. We qu…”

“I think it is for Harbour Energy to take account of its decision, but I would reiterate the point that I think there are a number of factors at play here. There are long-term decisions that companies make around the future of where they see their business in the North Sea. They are looking at the same data that we are …”

“I genuinely do not think it was. Of course it was introduced by the previous Government, but we supported the principle of a windfall tax, particularly at that moment in time, given consumers’ bills were increasing so significantly. I do not think that was the premise of it. A range of factors come into play in why bus…”

“I will start my answer by saying that tax policy is a matter for the Chancellor, and it is important for me to put that on the record. It is important to put the EPL into the context of what it was designed to do by the previous Government. When we were in opposition, we supported the principle that if an industry make…”

“The fundamental is that it does not come out of the ground in the North Sea and into Britain for free. It is paid for, as an internationally traded commodity. Whether it comes out west of Shetland or somewhere else in the world and is shipped here, it is traded on the international market. We do not have a nationalised…”

“I do not have specific field information before me, I am afraid, but I can write to you on that specific question.”

“It will own projects that will generate electricity, yes. It will, by default, be a generator. It is an exciting opportunity. It has to start somewhere. I take issue with this idea, particularly from people who did not support it at all, that we should not do it because it is too small at the moment. People opposed its…”

“First, on Aberdeen, Great British Energy had to pass through Parliament, and it did that a few months ago. We cannot just click our fingers and set things up. There is a process; it takes time. We have done that remarkably quickly, and it is now ramping up its employment in Aberdeen. We have a board that is fully in pl…”