Speeches by Shanks.

“It goes back to what I said earlier. I take the hon. Lady’s point, and I take seriously the number of people who engaged with the petition. I also reflect on the number of organisations and activities across the country that rely on sponsorship. I do not think that we should discount that so easily, because we have inc…”

“I suspect that if we go through all the words that have ever been spoken inside and outside this place, we might find two words that go side by side quite often. In answer to the hon. Lady, no, I do not think that that is the case at all. She makes a persuasive argument, but in my view it is not the argument that appli…”

“I am not at this stage, I am afraid. What we deliberately did with the consultation was broaden it out from a series of specific questions to a much broader conversation, and some genuinely open questions to stimulate conversation, about what the future of energy in the North Sea will look like. Core to that are some q…”

“I cannot go into consultation responses that we have not fully analysed yet, but I will say categorically that the Government are committed to their manifesto commitment of not issuing new licences to explore new fields. What we want to do—and this is why there were detailed questions in the consultation—and how we ena…”

“I want to be quite careful not to summarise any of the consultation response we will issue, but I want to be clear that when we say no new licences to explore new fields, that will be our position. The exploration of new fields will not happen, but there are, of course, complexities in how licences are currently operat…”

“Existing licences will remain in place. That is important to state. We are not going to rescind any existing licences. Of course, a lot of licences are returning to the NSTA, but we are not rescinding any licences. Fields that already have a licence can go through the consenting process, which we announced a few weeks …”

“Two things are worth saying. First, we have always licensed fields in the North Sea. It is an important part of how we have managed it to date, but as I have said in a number of my other answers, the North Sea is a declining basin. When you talk about an externality, I think the most fundamental one is that the geology…”

“Our manifesto commitment came about because of our analysis in opposition of what the future of the North Sea looks like. We did not just put something in the manifesto without doing the work and why we are doing it. It was a deliberate decision to do that, based on the knowledge that is publicly available about the na…”

“It is an important question, and I am very happy to say that getting to this point in our renewable power has been a collective effort. In fact, I think the consensus across most of the mainstream political parties has been critical to getting to this point, including the Scottish Government and the previous Government…”

“The Labour party made a commitment that we would fully fund Great British Energy with £8.3 billion, and that has happened. I know not everyone in this Committee supported the creation of Great British Energy, but I think it is an incredibly important part of how we build investment in the future. It is also about sayin…”

“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…”

“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…”

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

“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 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…”

“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 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 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 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.”

“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…”