Extract from BEIS
questions
Manufacturing: Support for Innovation
(Crawley) (Con): What
steps he is taking to support innovation in the manufacturing
sector. (902467)
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy (): Despite the
Opposition’s constant attempts to talk down UK manufacturing, the
truth is that we are ninth in the world and fourth in Europe, and
that our advanced manufacturing sector contributes £205 billion
gross value added to the UK economy. That is why we continue to
support it in sectors such as aerospace, automotive and life
sciences through £850 million to the high-value manufacturing
catapult and nearly £200 million through our Made Smarter
programme.
: Recently, Rolls-Royce
in conjunction with Gatwick-based easyJet, carried out a
successful green hydrogen jet engine trial. Will my hon. Friend
assure me that the Government will continue to invest in
sustainable aviation innovation?
: I thank my hon.
Friend, the chair of the all-party group for the future of
aviation, and I take this opportunity to invite the whole House
to celebrate the world-first achieved by Rolls-Royce and
easyJet: the first run of a green hydrogen-powered auto engine. I
am happy to reconfirm our commitment to aerospace technology.
That is why we have put £685 million into the Aerospace
Technology Institute programme and £125 million through the
industrial strategy challenge fund into the UK Research and
Innovation future flight challenge. The UK is leading in clean
energy for the aviation sector and jet zero.
Topical
Questions
(North West Leicestershire)
(Con): If he will make a statement on his departmental
responsibilities.(902487)
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy (): With Sizewell C, we are
securing a cheap, clean and reliable supply of energy to
supercharge growth—I will provide more details in my oral
statement. We have recommitted to increasing public investment in
research and development to £20 billion each year by 2024-25,
which will supercharge science and innovation, and we are
supporting local enterprises and increasing the national living
wage by almost 10%, the largest ever cash-terms increase.
: As well as renewables,
it is clear that we need to add more baseload capacity, and
nuclear is the favourite for that. Hundreds of my constituents
work at Rolls-Royce
and many of them work on the development of small modular nuclear
reactors. Will my right hon. Friend outline what support the
Government are giving to Rolls-Royce to
develop this technology, which will not only add to the UK’s
energy security but deliver a technology that we will be able to
export successfully around the globe?
: Like my hon. Friend, I
am very keen on small nuclear reactors as part of the solution.
We will be launching Great British Nuclear early next year to
assist both Rolls-Royce and
its competitors. There are other brands out there, all of which
have interesting ideas about modular production of nuclear power,
which will provide sustainable energy even when the wind is not
blowing and the sun is not shining.
(Workington)
(Con): Cumberland has sites ready to go for new nuclear. It
has expertise, interest and development companies for both small
modular reactors and large-scale nuclear. Will the Secretary of
State work with me and my hon. Friends the Members for Copeland
() and for Carlisle () to bring Rolls-Royce SMR
and UK European pressurised reactors 5 and 6 to Moorside?
: I know that Cumberland
has a tremendous amount of expertise and a lot more to offer.
When Great British Nuclear launches in the new year, it will help
to bring not just traditional Sizewell-style nuclear assets to
this country, but the small modular reactors from Rolls-Royce and
potentially other competitors.
(Poole) (Con): I welcome
the announcements on nuclear and specifically on Sizewell C.
The Rolls-Royce scheme
for modular nuclear seems very exciting, but we do need to get on
with it. Does the Secretary of State have a view as to what year
we will be starting the first project?
: My hon. Friend will be
pleased to hear that when I was at Sizewell yesterday, I was with
leaders from EDF and the French Government—indeed, the French
ambassador was there. Later in the day I spoke to my opposite
number about ensuring that we can speed up co-operation on
nuclear, as well as on things such as wind, and even on our
interconnectors. I was going to say that the point of Great
British Nuclear is to really put the acid under this, but I am
sure that there is a much better nuclear comparison. It is really
about ensuring that we get on with producing our new nuclear
fleet a lot faster than has happened in the last few decades.
(Sheffield South East)
(Lab): I welcome the Secretary of State to his place.
According to what he has said, Sheffield must be getting some
things right: we have been doing energy from waste for over 30
years, since I was council leader, and ITM Power, the leading
green hydrogen company, is in my constituency.
Regarding nuclear, is it not important that we ensure a UK supply
chain, which has not always happened? Rolls-Royce and
SMRs are therefore really important, working with Sheffield
Forgemasters, but Madhvani International is also prepared to put
billions of pounds of development capital into developing
Hitachi-based SMRs—which are already regulated in North
America—working with Forgemasters and other Sheffield companies.
I am pleased that the Secretary of State will meet me tomorrow to
discuss the proposal in more detail, but in principle, I hope
that he welcomes it.
: I welcome the hon.
Gentleman’s foresightedness in all the schemes that he mentioned.
It is a shame that the last Government to invest in nuclear power
was Margaret Thatcher’s Government, all the way back in the
1980s; yesterday brought that long drought to an end. As the
energy Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and
Holderness, has reminded me, we have already provided £210
million to Rolls-Royce for
the small modular reactor programme. I wish both Sheffield and
the rest of the country well in attracting some of this new
technology, and the supply chain that goes with it, to their
constituencies.
Extract from Lords
debate on the Autumn Statement
(CB):...There is good news
about business rates relief—the Government are finally going to
address this—and about infrastructure and Sizewell C, but what
about small modular reactors? Rolls-Royce has
the capability. We can get them up and running in five years. A
500-megawatt SMR can power electricity for 1 million people. Why
have we not started yet?
