Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)

My Lords, let me begin with Amendment 56 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and spoken to today by the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, and Amendment 56A tabled by the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard. These amendments propose an addition to Clause 5, which would require the Secretary of State to consult the Climate Change Committee, the National Energy System Operator, Natural England, the Environment Agency, Great British Nuclear, the National Wealth Fund and other relevant people before publishing a statement of strategic priorities. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, for all the work that she has done and all she has contributed to legislation in the last few years. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, for his rather barbed support in relation to the Government’s response to these amendments. It was not a complete surprise that he does not entirely welcome the Bill, although there will be unalloyed pleasure for my colleagues in Defra at the support that he is giving to our planning reforms, which actually do relate as well to the energy infrastructure and the investment that we wish to see. The noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, is particularly focused on nuclear energy and its potential, which I always welcome. Great British Energy and Great British Nuclear are already talking very closely together, and he can be assured that this will continue. In response to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, I say that electricity demand in the future is clearly going to go up hugely over the next 20 to 30 years. If he looks at the clean power action plan, he will see that we really recognise the need to speed up planning consent and connections to the grid. This is fully understood, which is why it is a such an important component. In a sense, this is for the Government to take forward: GBE will have to work within those policies that we are taking forward. It is for the Government to do this, and that is why it is not really reflected in the provisions of the Bill.