Data Centres: Energy Demand

Lord Alton of Liverpool Excerpts

Thursday 16th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Lord that pumped hydro schemes are one method of ensuring that electricity is used as efficiently as it can be in terms of taking it in at some stages of the cycle and releasing it at others. A number of other arrangements can do that, such as batteries and other forms of long-term storage—compressed air, for example—all of which will be a substantial part of the battery of systems to optimise the electricity production of the country as AI develops.

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, when the Minister last answered on this question, he was good enough to talk about the problem of using Uyghur slave labour in the manufacture of solar panels. He promised to write to me, and I am grateful to him for following up that promise. In that letter, he said that he would inform the Joint Committee on Human Rights by July of the measures that Great British Energy is taking to eliminate the use of slave labour. Will he comment on what he said about the need for a review of the 2015 modern slavery legislation that the noble Baroness, Lady May, who introduced that legislation, has called for, not least Section 56 of the 2015 Act, and how he intends the review of that legislation, which he mentions in the letter, to take place?

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I have a feeling that the noble Lord will shortly be in receipt of a further letter from me on this subject. It is the case that the Modern Slavery Act, particularly in terms of a number of the concerns that have been raised about the more offset arrangements as far as modern slavery is concerned, needs some uprating. That is being considered, but as to some of his further points, I think I will need to write to him further.