Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:33 pm on 18 September 2023.
Liam Byrne
Labour, Birmingham, Hodge Hill
5:33,
18 September 2023
I am grateful for that reassurance, because this is one question on which both the Conservative Mayor and I would be happy to come and lobby on behalf of the west midlands. The point is that we are told that we need 130 GW of capacity in the UK by 2040. Now, that may be eight sites or it may be more or fewer, but the key thing is that we cannot see a plan for the UK getting that capacity in place, unless the Minister gets up and tell us that there is a plan that she is about to reveal.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
