Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider introducing the national interest test for mergers and acquisitions that was part of the brief of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission into the brief of the Competition and Markets Authority.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
As we build an economy that works for all, the Government will keep the law on mergers and acquisitions under review.
Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support the development of smaller reactors and the use of fracking for gas in order to strengthen the UK’s self-sufficiency in energy.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring the UK has a secure and resilient energy system while meeting our climate change obligations and keeping bills as low as possible. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and shale gas have the potential to play a part in achieving this.
The Government has committed to investing at least £250 million over the next five years in nuclear research and development, which will include support for SMRs. In March 2016, the Government launched the first phase of a competition to identify the best value SMR for the UK, as well as allocating up to £30m over the next 5 years for an SMR-enabling advanced manufacturing programme to develop skills capacity.
The Government supports the exploration of our shale gas resources in a safe and sustainable way. The shale gas resources beneath Britain have the potential to bolster our energy security and lead to jobs and economic growth. UK geology is promising but we make no assumptions about production levels. We need exploration to determine the potential.
The Government has been clear that shale development must be safe and environmentally sound.
Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the strategic importance of self-sufficiency in energy for the UK’s national security.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The security of the UK’s energy supply is an important factor in the national security of the country and featured prominently in the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review, published last year. The government also produces an annual assessment of the security of the UK’s energy supply which considers the availability of electricity and gas to meet consumer demand in Great Britain over the next four years. The strategically important contributions of both domestic energy production and diversity of supply are included in this analysis.