Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the current costs of obtaining short-term work visas for UK nationals seeking to work in each of the EU member states.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As part of their domestic immigration rules, each EU Member State has the power to set the cost of visas and/or work permits. This has resulted in a wide range of costs that Member States can continue to change, and at a time of their choosing. Each Member State is responsible for communicating and updating such costs, and each remains the most accurate and applicable source of this information; the UK Government does not hold this information. We urge all UK nationals to check the rules in the country they are travelling to ahead of time. These rules will differ depending on length of stay and activities undertaken abroad.
The Government is committed to supporting individuals and businesses. We will continue to engage regularly with our embassies to better understand the requirements in Member States. We will also continue to enhance guidance for businesses to best support travel for work purposes under our new trading relationship with the European Union.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their current estimate for the (1) outturn cost, and (2) date to start exporting power to the National Grid, of Hinkley Point C.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Under the terms of the Contract for Difference, neither taxpayer nor consumer is liable to contribute to the construction cost of Hinkley Point C. The Contract for Difference defines a Commissioning Window for each of the two nuclear reactors. These are from 1st May 2025 to 30th April 2029 for Reactor One and 1st November 2025 to 31st October 2029 for Reactor Two.
In September 2019, the lead investor in Hinkley Point C published a statement on the project cost and schedule. This said that the capital cost is likely to be between £21.5Bn and £22.5Bn (these figures are in 2015 money). The developer is targeting power generation by the end of 2025.