Speeches by Shanks.

“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 …”

“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…”

“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…”

“Everything that we want to do is to make sure it is fair. Fairness has to be looked at in the round, so fair in terms of the support that might need to be provided, but fair in terms of who, ultimately, pays for it as well and what that means for the future of the country’s finances. We are looking at all of these opti…”

“The balance of publishing these things is always weighed in favour of people appreciating that we recognise these risks against the risk that people consider that those risks are more likely than they might be. It is obviously important that the Government consider every possible risk, even if it is very unlikely to ha…”

“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…”

“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 …”

“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.”

“I cannot speak specifically about the strait of Hormuz. Jonathan might be able to. I would say that, generally, on the risk register, we take account of disruption to supply chains. I do not know whether we specify down to that, but we look at different scenarios and where different fuel types might be affected by inte…”

“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…”

“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 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…”

“The risk register is made up of a number of risks affecting energy, some of which are the supply chains that we have and where we get fuel from. We look at that in the broadest sense, so not just caused by specific instances of disruption. If there was, for example, an issue at one of our LNG terminals, an issue with 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 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 …”

“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…”

“We absolutely are looking at options in that space. I hope that people would expect us to be looking right now at every option that is on the table. If something deals with a particular problem now, but maybe is not the long-term answer, we will absolutely look at it. There are mechanisms in place that will support som…”

“I am sure you have a suggestion for me, Torcuil, of where that might be, and you and I certainly stood on a very windy hilltop a few weeks ago in Stornoway. As for the way we are doing this, it will be a pilot. The Government will put £20 million into that pilot to look at the final levies that people pay on the megawa…”