Jackdaw Gas Field

Baroness Gill Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Curran (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for that very interesting question, and I pay tribute to him and recognise his great experience in this field over—being respectful—many decades. He raises a very interesting point about the carbon emissions of bureaucracy; that is quite an interesting question I could ask in the department. Challenging bureaucracy, looking at costs, driving down duplication and always making sure that you are driven by outcomes are very good principles of government. I take the point that he raises very seriously, and it is something that I and the department will keep in the forefront of our minds. When we are creating the necessary infrastructure to implement our decision-making, it is vital that we do not bureaucratise or duplicate. We should have a carbon emissions assessment of that too. In the spirit of the partnership that he began with, I think we can say that the commitment to the North Sea remains because it will play a great part in our energy mix for decades to come.

[Baroness Gill (Lab)]

My Lords, could my noble friend the Minister inform the House about the Government’s plans for the energy wealth fund. How will it impact household bills and jobs?

[Baroness Curran (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that question. The energy wealth fund is an important part of the announcement that was made on the same day that the decision was made on Jackdaw. For once, we must acknowledge that we should make use of the receipts that we receive, and we want to feed that back into the clean energy transition. It will be beneficial because it will be clear where that money is being spent. It will help fund a clean transition, as I said; it can help with many parts of the infrastructure that we need to facilitate clean infrastructure. While there will not be a direct read across to bills, it will certainly help in the long term as we establish our energy security and get off the fossil-fuel rollercoaster, because that will help protect affordability in the long run. That kind of investment, focused in that way, will help us develop the clean energy industries of the future. As we know, there is growing investment in that field; I think there is £110 billion of private investment in the clean energy sector. That, of course, will have a read over to jobs. Many of them are skilled, high-paying jobs, which is vital to my nation of Scotland but also vital, as we now know, throughout the United Kingdom.