(LD):...Secondly, as I
understand it, the Government, through small modular reactor
funding, have already provided £210 million to Rolls-Royce as
part of supporting small modular reactors. However, that is for
export. Rolls-Royce is
very keen to promote the fact that Qatar is interested in buying
these technologies; a Minister who was in Qatar in recent months
was saying how good that would be, with joint funding from a
French company and an American company. My understanding is that
support for export, unless it is WTO-approved or through export
finance guarantees, is prohibited within this, so I would be
grateful to know where that £210 million of small modular reactor
funding fits. Is it a subsidy, or would the scheme supporting it
be considered a subsidy? If the Minister could respond to those
points, I would be grateful.
(LD): Will the
Minister address the points about how the regulated asset base
will be considered—I understand his comments about that—and
specifically about support for the small reactor scheme
for Rolls-Royce
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy () (Con): The noble Lord
makes some valid points on the RAB mechanism, which will be
debated in full on the upcoming nuclear Bill, but I will write to
him on the specific points, particularly about support for the
SMR reactors he talked about. I point out that existing subsidy
schemes are of course excluded from the Bill. No doubt he will
want to ask what happens if we want to award a similar subsidy in
the future...
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