Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kevin Foster and Nick Hurd

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on her election to the Select Committee, and she is absolutely right: energy innovation is critical to both our future ability to reduce the cost of decarbonisation and unlocking the industrial opportunities inside the low-carbon energy sector. We are reviewing our plans in relation to our energy innovation portfolio. The nuclear industry is a very important part of those plans, and I hope we will have something to say very shortly.

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

The Minister will be aware that we in the south-west do not share the Scottish National party’s negative view of the Hinkley Point power station project, but will he reassure me about what work the Government will do to ensure that young people have the skills to take the jobs that will become available in these industries?

Green Investment Bank

Debate between Kevin Foster and Nick Hurd

Wednesday 11th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

I have great respect for the Chairman of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, and we had a useful exchange about this issue yesterday, but he is again making assumptions about asset stripping. He is aware of the structure that we have established, having doubtless been involved in the parliamentary debate about it. There is a great deal of concern on both sides of the House about protecting the integrity of the green purpose of the GIB, which is why we have gone through the process—which I think is robust—of setting up what is effectively a green share, along with the mechanism for its governance. That system was, I think, agreed to by Parliament and was introduced formally with the protection of corporate law.

I return, however, to the human motive of those who want to buy this organisation, which is to enable it to grow and do more. It is the authenticity, sincerity and integrity of those proposals that we are now evaluating.

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

I am sure the Minister shares my slight amusement at the Opposition’s argument that we can believe everything we read in the press about the Green Investment Bank, given that they spent all yesterday afternoon arguing that we cannot believe everything we read in the press. Does he agree that the Green Investment Bank was set up to deal with a market failure, that the fact that private investors are now keen to come in demonstrates the purpose it has served and, in particular, that without the restrictions imposed by EU state aid it can deliver more investment, not less?

[Mr Hurd]

My hon. Friend has made—much more eloquently than I have so far succeeded in doing—exactly the fundamental point that we are trying to convey. The test of an organisation that was set up to correct a market failure is whether that failure has indeed been corrected. We believe that it has, and our view is supported by the large amounts of private sector investment that are flowing into green infrastructure in the United Kingdom and around the world. What we must do now is ensure that the GIB is free and unfettered by the state, so that it can do more.

Sellafield

Debate between Kevin Foster and Nick Hurd

Tuesday 6th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

Only last week, I was at Hinkley Point B seeing the very high safety standards the nuclear industry practises. Does the Minister agree that being able to have an open and sensible discussion about nuclear safety issues is a key part of keeping our industry safe? Does he also agree that we have one of the most effective regulation systems in the world, which has meant that we have had many decades of safe, clean power generated? Sellafield plays a key part in that in this country.

[Mr Hurd]

I thank my hon. Friend for that positive and constructive intervention. This is a massively important issue on which no Government can show any complacency, but I believe that we have set up a proper framework and a robust system of transparency and accountability. Considerable progress continues to be made, but the safety record continues to be an impressive one, which is why countries all around the world come to see how we do it.

Zika Virus

Debate between Kevin Foster and Nick Hurd

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

To defeat such horrible illnesses, we need to tackle them at their source, as we saw with the Ebola crisis and outbreak. Given the success of Operation Gritrock in Sierra Leone in fighting Ebola, has DFID had any discussion with the Ministry of Defence about potentially supporting any operations, if the virus moves into countries less able than Brazil to mount a major attack against it?

[Mr Hurd]

I would be the first to acknowledge the enormously important role the MOD and our armed forces played in Sierra Leone and the success story that was the battle against Ebola. The current situation is different. I am not aware of such conversations, but I know that colleagues at the top of the relevant Departments are working closely together to keep on top of the options for helping the international community fight this alarming condition.