Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what plans the Government has to deliver an ultra deep water port on the East Coast of Scotland.

The Government is committed to supporting the development of a world-leading decommissioning industry. We have already invested in the Oil and Gas Technology Centre through the Aberdeen City Region deal, with the aim of becoming a global centre for solving offshore mature basin, subsea and decommissioning technology challenges.

But whilst a number of UK companies have been successful in winning decommissioning contracts, no UK port currently has the ultra-deep water facilities needed to directly accommodate the fully-loaded heavy lift vessels commonly used for decommissioning large platforms.

The Government intends to take forward scoping work to examine the market failure to deliver these facilities, and potential options for intervention to ensure that the UK is able to effectively compete for forthcoming decommissioning projects. I’d be happy to meet the hon Member to discuss this work further.