Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 3:29 pm on 22 January 2025.
Lord Tarassenko
Crossbench
3:29,
22 January 2025
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Spellar, mentioned the AI opportunities action plan, including the plan to build data centres—among them, the largest UK data centre so far. These data centres, which have been designated by the Government as sovereign data centres, will require SMRs to power them. Rolls-Royce, in which the Government hold a golden share, has produced and maintained the nuclear power systems for the UK’s submarine fleet using similar —not the same but similar—technology for SMRs for the last 60 years. Will the Minister ask the Science Secretary and the Energy Secretary, who together will chair the AI energy council, to designate the SMRs that will supply the sovereign data centres, also as sovereign assets, and run a much shorter bidding process open to UK companies only?
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.
