Jackdaw Gasfield

Andrew Pakes Excerpts

Wednesday 21st October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Michael Shanks]

Let me be clear that that is a separate consenting decision. I am not making any comment at all today on the Rosebank decision, which will be made in due course. We are absolutely committed to tackling climate change. There is no change at all in my commitment or the Government’s commitment to delivering the clean power mission and improving homes so that we can get off fossil fuels as quickly as possible, but the reality is that Britain will need oil and gas for decades to come as part of that transition. Today’s decision is about a particular project that helps us to get those things out of our own continental shelf. My hon. Friend is right to say that that will not bring down bills, but it will provide energy security benefits, jobs and investment coming in through tax receipts, which we are deploying to deliver more clean power.

[Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab/Co-op)]

I warmly welcome this statement from my hon. Friend and the focus on investment, jobs and resilience not just in the North sea, but in all parts of the United Kingdom. He will know the critical role that Peterborough plays in our national gas networks, having visited the gas transmission and compression site last November to welcome the £870 million investment that National Gas made in the network and in my city. Alongside me, on that visit he also met GMB representatives and apprentices—people I often listen to when it comes to energy policy. Will he join me in thanking GMB members across the country for their commitment and their contribution to the energy debate? Will he confirm that workers will be critical to any future discussions about our energy balance and how we get the mix right for the future?

[Michael Shanks]

I declare an interest: I am a member of the GMB, and I am very happy to celebrate the role that it plays in this area. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the matter of National Gas and the transmission system, because we often talk about oil and gas workers offshore, but I have met a number of those workers who help to get the gas to homes and businesses across the country. It is an incredibly skilled job, and I pay tribute to the work that those workers do. He is absolutely right; during the transition between what is here now and what comes after in the oil and gas industry, workers have to be right at the centre.