Speeches by Shanks.

“We learn from those situations. Ofgem has a role in making sure the market is as resilient as possible, and looking at individual companies as part of that. Ofgem has introduced higher capital requirements on companies to demonstrate that they are more resilient than they might otherwise have been. There is a lot more …”

“I have been working with the Treasury and with the Exchequer Secretary, who joined me for the last roundtable I had with industry a few weeks ago. We are aware of the need to move quickly. I would recognise the point that, at this moment in particular, we should underscore how important the four remaining refineries th…”

“Good evening. It is good to be with you again, Chair, on this really important subject. On refineries, I brought all of them together for the first time in 13 years to have conversations about what the future of the refining sector would look like. We are working on a future of fuel strategy. A consultation has gone ou…”

“I did not see the evidence earlier, but I know that, previously, the industry has confirmed that there would not be a penny off bills due to further extraction in the North sea.”

“The tax income we have received for 60 years from North sea oil has funded public services for a long time. I am not going to suggest that the revenue is not hugely important. It is. The question that we have been answering about what the future of the North sea looks like is: how do we manage what is a super-mature ba…”

“It is the best argument for coming up with a plan, which we have now done, and then getting on with delivering it for what the transition in the North sea looks like. If we had done that 15 or 20 years ago, we would not have seen tens of thousands of workers lose their job without an alternative job to go to. Oil and g…”

“The work is nearing completion. What we asked them to do was look at whether there were potential sites in Scotland, recognising that the Scottish Government and the SNP have an objection to all nuclear. It will be a look at potential sites without being a full siting assessment, because there is no prospect of them be…”

“It is a timely question. I was at Hunterston B, the nuclear power station in Ayrshire, last week, which has just been handed back to the Government for decommissioning, because we are taking a different approach to how we will decommission our nuclear assets to be as efficient, cost-efficient and fast as possible, but …”

“The energy profits levy comes to an end in 2030, but the Chancellor confirmed to industry a few weeks ago that she would work with it to bring that to an end sooner, and for there to be a permanent mechanism put in place. Clearly, that work moves at a different pace at a moment, so that we do not have periods in which …”

“On CBAM first of all, I am not one for banging drums, but I have absolutely engaged with the Treasury on this, and the Treasury has engaged with the industry. There have been conversations about how this happens, and I can write to the Committee on some of the technical details that go into how CBAM works, but it is wo…”

“I would say that, first of all, the Government were taking seriously our resilience before this situation. This brings very sharp focus to a lot of the work that we were doing, and a lot of the assumptions that we have made as a country for some time, but the work was going on before that. Our national resilience and t…”

“We review these documents regularly, as you would expect, not just given the events happening at the moment. These documents are reviewed regularly. Just because it has not been updated, no one should read anything into that.”

“It is a really important question. Since I was last here, there have been meetings about that. The Minister for Energy Consumers held a meeting in the Treasury recently to talk about that exact issue and—your point is well made—to try to find ways, which might not be the perfect long-term data architecture strategy for…”

“It is a really important framing of the question. The Prime Minister was really clear with all of his Ministers before this crisis, in fact, that the sense of fear and dread that many people have that the next letter coming through the letterbox is a bill that they cannot afford should be uppermost in every single one …”

“The first thing to say is that the Chancellor outlined yesterday, and repeated the message that the Prime Minister gave at the Liaison Committee, that the Government are working day and night at the moment on what support for billpayers might look like. As I said last time I gave evidence, there is an observation perio…”

“We are absolutely not. That is not from a point of us not taking very seriously the risks that there are at the moment and managing the situation carefully, but we are monitoring it. All the data that we have is that, because we have a strong and diverse range of supplies, we are not concerned about it. It does not mea…”

“No, I do not think you should at all.”

“The Chancellor is leading this work across Government, so there are a number of areas that she will be focusing on that are not in my brief. Specifically on things that we are looking at as the Energy Department, the price cap is really important, so we are doing everything we can to monitor what is happening at the mo…”

“There is slightly more to it than that. There have been officials appointed to look at this question, and they are working through that work. It is not that the decision has been taken not to do anything. Work is going on. It will just take slightly longer than I would like. It is worth saying that the inclusion of CBA…”

“I think it has. It will have been felt on bills, but not as often as it should be.”