Clause 12 - General duties when carrying out functions
Energy Bill [Lords]
9:45 am
Mr Laurence Robertson (Shadow Minister, Economic Affairs; Tewkesbury, Conservative)
To pick up on the Minister's final point, I do not think that the amendment would give the NDA an obligation to use one type of fuel or energy source. What it would do is—to use the Minister's words—leave the option open.
I hesitate to say so, but the Minister's reply was uncharacteristically unpersuasive. We have heard a lot about leaving the option open, both from this Minister
and from Ministers in another place, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury said, it is an empty phrase. Perhaps he did not use those words. What does the phrase mean? New nuclear build is always an option. How could we close that option? We cannot—it is always there. So, leaving the option open is an empty phrase, especially in opposing the amendment.
The amendment does not suggest that the NDA should be involved in promoting the nuclear industry in any way. It says that, in physical terms, we should leave open the option or the possibility of using that site for nuclear generation in the future. It would not, in any way, oblige the NDA to be involved. It would not ask the NDA to approve of nuclear power.