Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 30 April (HL6622), whether any other Department holds the figures of the number of certified nuclear welders in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Government does not hold the figure on the number of certified nuclear welders in the UK.
Hinkley Point C has invested £24m in education, skills and employment, including £4m in the development of a Centre of Excellence for Welding at Bridgwater and Taunton College. HMG also continues to support UK nuclear skills through the industry led National Nuclear Strategic Plan for Skills, a collaborative effort between Government, industry, and academia, setting out targeted action to address the skills gap and secure the UK’s nuclear workforce. This includes the on-going development of a welding course as part of the Career Switchers project in the Nuclear Skills Plan. In addition, the Destination Nuclear national communications campaign has targeted people that could work in the sector’s critical skills areas, including welders.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many nuclear certified welders there are currently in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero does not produce their own figures on the number of welders in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil servants attended COP29 in Baku in November 2024.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The full list of UK delegates who attended COP29 was 448 and was published by the UNFCCC, along with other country delegations. It can be found on the UNFCCC website. The number of UK delegates that attended COP28 was 674.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of individuals qualified to install solar panels onto the roofs of domestic properties; and how many individuals are currently in training for this occupation.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Government does not hold this information.
Alongside the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, The Office for Clean Energy Jobs published an evidence annex that assessed the skills challenges for the Clean Energy Mission, including solar. This will be used with wider evidence and engagement to support skills planning and ensure that the UK has the workforce needed to become a clean energy superpower.
The Solar Taskforce has been focusing on identifying and taking forward the actions needed to deliver a resilient, high skilled, well-paid solar workforce. The resulting Solar Roadmap is due for publication in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of qualified insulation installers in the country.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Department does not have an exact figure for the number of individual qualified insulation installers operating in the market. However, to be able to work on the Government’s energy efficiency schemes, a business installing fabric insulation must be registered with TrustMark to ensure compliance with PAS 2035/2030. As of January 2025, there are around 900 insulation installer businesses registered with TrustMark that can work on the Government’s energy efficiency schemes. The Government is working with the sector to improve our understanding of the retrofit supply chain to support delivery of the Warm Homes Plan.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of delivery times for equipment to expand capacity on the electricity grid, including high voltage cable, pylons, large power transformers and circuit breakers.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
Through engagement with electricity operators, we are aware of estimated lead times for grid components. Due to growing cross-industry demand, lead times have increased, for example, to 24-months for 132kV transformers and to four years for 400kV transformers and network cabling.
We continue to support Ofgem’s developing Advanced Procurement Mechanism (launching early this year) which will allow transmission operators to access constrained equipment earlier in project development.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential contribution of natural hydrogen to the UK's energy supply.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK aims to support multiple production routes in order to meet the Government's ambition to have up to 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030.
The Government is not aware of evidence to suggest natural hydrogen will make a significant contribution to the UK’s hydrogen production ambitions. However, the Government welcomes efforts from other countries that support the production and use of low carbon hydrogen and is working with international partners on issues including natural hydrogen.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what support his Department provides for the development of British based nuclear (a) small and (b) advanced modular reactors.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has committed up to £385m to an Advanced Nuclear Fund. Of this, £210m has been awarded to support development of the Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design, potentially capable of deployment in the UK in the early 2030s. The Rolls-Royce SMR entered the Generic Design Assessment process in March becoming the first SMR to begin UK nuclear regulation. The Advanced Nuclear Fund also supports AMRs. Phase B of the open AMR R&D competition launched in December 2022 to provide up to £55 million to fund up to two different projects to develop detailed FEED+ studies.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether (a) his Department and (b) Ofgem were consulted before the advice was issued by the National Leadership Magistrate to magistrates regarding warrants to force fit prepayment meters.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The decision to suspend the fitting of prepayment meter warrants was made by the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, who is a member of the judiciary and acts independently from Government.
The Department and Ofgem have had discussions about prepayment meter warrants with the Ministry of Justice and will continue to do so.