Speeches by Shanks.

“I will repeat what I have said before: we are obviously hugely disappointed by the way that the owners have dealt with the company. I repeat the ask that I have made in the House a number of times, and in writing to the chief executive, that he should put his hands in his pockets and do the right thing by the workforce…”

“Of course the Government follow the regulations that we have put in place quickly, and applications must be considered on a case-by-case basis—that is the way anyone would expect them to be dealt with. I will not say on the Floor of the House any more about those applications, as they are live decisions that will be ma…”

“We are looking in the round at how we can deliver jobs and opportunities on the Grangemouth site. The National Wealth Fund made an unprecedented commitment of £200 million, and I have been meeting companies that are potentially interested in developing projects, to make sure we get them over the line. We have delivered…”

“I completely agree. The right hon. and learned Gentleman is absolutely right: there are no technical barriers to doing it, but that does not mean that it is a straightforward process. To be honest, things that I thought would have been much more straightforward, like how we define “community”, are more difficult to get…”

“Our clean power 2030 action plan sets out our pathway to delivering clean power. To support that plan, we recently launched the solar road map, which confirms plans to increase domestic solar installations through the future homes standard and warm homes plan.”

“I completely agree. My hon. Friend makes the point that this is not just about action on the climate—as important as that is—and creating thousands of new jobs, but about bringing down bills and, crucially, delivering on that energy security point. The truth is that even though our clean power mission is about doing al…”

“My hon. Friend makes a point that others have raised. We are looking in granular detail at how the system works to ensure that the regulatory landscape allows such opportunities to be taken. I am very happy to meet him to discuss this further. We are taking a detailed look at every single aspect of the system, so that …”

“We will continue to support new renewables through the contracts for difference scheme in conjunction with initiatives such as the warm homes plan, the future homes standard and the boiler upgrade scheme. Great British Energy and Great British Energy Nuclear will together invest more than £8.3 billion over this Parliam…”

“I regularly engage with Ministers in the Northern Irish Executive, including in the Department for the Economy, which has responsibility for energy policy in Northern Ireland, and we discuss a range of issues. We are happy to support the Northern Irish Executive in any way we can, either with technology or through roll…”

“That sounds like a fantastic opportunity. Our ambition is to see solar panels on as many rooftops across the country as possible. It is a win-win opportunity, as the hon. Gentleman rightly puts it. He and I have spoken about a number of these issues previously, and I am happy to discuss this one with him. If he could w…”

“The hon. Lady is right that we have an enormous amount of innovation in this space and real potential to meet our future needs, not just as a result of the pathway that we have outlined, but through innovative solutions like the one she mentioned, which provide specific support to targeted industries. I am happy to loo…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for the question and for the work that he and the whole Committee have been doing on this matter. His report has been my bedtime reading every night this week as it is an important piece of work. He is right about two things. First, where processes are not as well aligned as they should be, we ab…”

“The clean power 2030 action plan makes it clear that nuclear will play an important role in our future energy system, providing low-carbon baseload power to the grid. We are delivering the biggest new nuclear building programme in a generation, having committed almost £17 billion at the recent spending review.”

“Well, my right hon. Friend the Energy Secretary says that we love Hemel Hempstead; I think we agree on that. The nuclear sector is poised for significant growth. That will help deliver on our energy needs in the future, and it is how we will deliver thousands of skilled jobs across the country. The nuclear skills plan …”

“The hon. Gentleman is assiduous in raising these sorts of questions with me. I am very happy to look at the possibilities. He is right to outline the potential of sites such as that, and we will look at it.”

“My hon. Friend always raises the huge potential of Cornwall in this House and in the energy space. He is right to talk about the potential for geothermal; we are hugely excited about the opportunities that it presents. I am very happy to meet him and others to discuss further how we can take it forward.”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right; the Government are committed to delivering a new golden age of nuclear, securing an abundance of clean power after 14 years of dither and delay from the Conservatives, and with that will come investment across the country. On 10 June, following a robust two-year process, Great Britis…”

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Electricity Capacity (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. These regulations were laid before the House on 3 June 2025, and they make technical improvements and changes to the capacity market scheme—th…”

“I will not detain the Committee for long, but I should put on record that the shadow Minister was on the judging panel for the aforesaid awards. I am not quite sure what that says for either of us, frankly, but I thank him for whatever role he played in trying to prevent me from getting the award. It clearly did not wo…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg, for my first petitions debate, which are a great innovation in parliamentary procedure. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Burton and Uttoxeter (Jacob Collier), I thank everyone who signed the petition. I do not think that I have been in a Westminster Hall de…”