Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the delay in Great British Nuclear's selection of small modular reactor designs for public support and its awarding of contracts for development.

At Spring Budget, we announced the launch of the next phase of the Great British Nuclear (GBN) Small Modular Reactor selection process, allowing vendors to bid for potentially multi-billion-pound technology development contracts. It is important that this process is robust. Companies will have until June to submit their tender responses, at which point GBN will assess these and negotiate final contracts, with the goal of announcing successful bidders later in 2024. The aim is for the competition to be the fastest of its kind in the world.