Douglas McAllister

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I thank the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) for securing this important debate. I speak in my capacity as a member of the Scottish Affairs Committee, which has recently published a report, “The future of Scotland’s oil and gas industry”, as part of our inquiry into Scotland’s role in the UK’s energy transition. I thank the hon. Member for allowing the report to be tagged to this debate on the Order Paper. The closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery, following the Petroineos announcement in November 2023 that refining operations would cease at the site, was a key focus of our report. The Grangemouth oil refinery operated for over a century, and was Scotland’s only oil refinery before refining officially ended in April this year. The refinery’s closure has left some 400 employees and the wider Grangemouth community facing deep uncertainty. The Prime Minister’s pledge of £200 million through the National Wealth Fund for future industries at the site was welcome, as was the Scottish Government’s announcement of £25 million to help establish a just transition for Grangemouth. The extra £14.5 million announced in the Budget was another welcome boost. However, the Government have not yet set out how that will be delivered and how it will tangibly result in jobs. The Committee visited the Grangemouth site during our inquiry. We heard oral evidence from Petroineos, the company that owns the refinery, from its parent company Ineos, from union representatives, from Project Willow and from the Forth Valley college, which provides the skills support for former refinery workers. Our report concluded that both Governments should have acted sooner to set in motion plans for the site’s future and to prepare for resulting job losses. That lack of action created an employment gap and hardship to the local community that could have been avoided. We said in our report that Grangemouth is the “canary in a coalmine” and a stark warning of what is to come. That warning proved prescient: just a few months on from the publication of the report, ExxonMobil announced its plans to shut the Mossmorran ethylene plant in February 2026. That is yet another example of Scotland’s rapidly changing industrial base. As we move away from our reliance on fossil fuels, industrial transition will only accelerate. For our national resilience, we must learn from these cases. The Grangemouth case has illustrated the need for the Government’s active stewardship in the energy transition. Our report recommends that the Government set out clear principles that outline the conditions and actions that underpin a just transition. We recommend principles that emphasise the importance of early Government intervention, proactive engagement with workers and communities, and a focus on decent jobs. Those principles should draw on best practice and ensure that transitions are fair and planned, not rushed and reactive. Last month, the Minister for Energy, my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks), said that announcements will be forthcoming on the investment proposals brought forward by the National Wealth Fund. I understand that the first project to be funded on the site was announced today: a groundbreaking biotech company using by-products from whisky distillation, which is jointly funded by both the UK and Scottish Governments’ £3 million of investment and hopes to deliver over 300 good jobs. That announcement is welcome. The timescales of establishing future industries at Grangemouth and the jobs that they will create all hinge on the types of investment proposal put forward. I commend the Committee’s report to all hon. Members. A response from the Government is expected by Christmas; I hope that that response will recognise the sentiment in our report that continued momentum on Grangemouth’s future is vital. Project Willow must not be left to gather dust while jobs are at stake. Communities that have powered our economy for generations deserve certainty and a fair future.