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Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord): Order. Before I call the next Member to speak, I remind the House that Mr. Speaker has placed a 10-minute limit on all Back-Bench speeches, which applies from now.

5.38 pm

Dr. Jack Cunningham (Copeland) (Lab): Twelve thousand or more people work at British Nuclear Fuels' Sellafield plant in my constituency. What is in the Bill—and, equally importantly, what is not in the Bill—is therefore of huge importance to them. It is important to the future social, economic and environmental well-being not only of them and their families but of their communities in Copeland and Allerdale.

Tony Cunningham (Workington) (Lab): I thank my right hon. Friend for including my constituency in his remarks. Does he agree that what is needed is a sense of responsibility from both the nuclear decommissioning authority and the Government towards the communities of west Cumbria, because many of those people have spent their entire working lives in the nuclear industry?

Dr. Cunningham: I agree, and I shall return to that theme shortly.

Those workers are dedicated, skilled, mature, reliable men and women, who safely manage, on behalf of the nation, hugely important nuclear installations. They deserve our support and gratitude.

I especially welcome part 2, which would create a nuclear decommissioning authority. For many years, Governments of both parties have failed to address the issue in a coherent, long-term way, and I congratulate my right hon. Friend on making progress with it. What I regret—here I agreed with at least part of what the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien) said—is the absence of a long-term commitment to the inclusion of nuclear energy in the nation's energy strategy.
 
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The International Energy Agency estimates that $10,000 billion of electricity-generating capacity will be required worldwide in the next quarter of a century. Energy demand in that time is forecast to increase by 66 per cent. Global population growth, global economic growth, global warming and the Kyoto accord, and our obligations that flow from those things all indicate the need for long-term thinking about secure energy supply. The Bill, I regret to say, misses an opportunity to address those important issues.

In the United Kingdom market, doubts about regulation, about emissions trading and about the EU's future commitment to emissions trading after 2007 affect long-term investment, as do doubts about aims for wind power. When we look at energy investment we are looking at very long-term projects, whether they involve wind power, nuclear power, coal, gas or anything else. Planning, too, must be long-term, and if we fail to make decisions when they are due we shall risk problems with supply for the future. I have no problem with the Government's commitment to wind power, but I do not think we should get too carried away by the contribution that it can actually make.

If the Government's objectives are to be fulfilled, we need to build 20 times 2 MW of capacity every week in this country, from now until 2020, in the hope that we shall produce 20 per cent. of our electricity. That is an heroic assumption. Moreover, wind power is by definition an intermittent source of supply. It cannot supply base load electricity and must be backed up by conventional generating capacity. Estimates suggest that the UK's electricity infrastructure requires some £70 billion of investment over the medium term. Against a background of uncertainty, achieving that seems unlikely.

The UK consumes about 2.5 per cent. of world energy. That figure will fall as we see continued growth in the People's Republic of China, India and other developing countries. UK renewables will meet 0.3 per cent. of world energy demand if we reach all our renewables targets by 2020. In other words, our renewables efforts have a minuscule impact on world energy supply, and therefore a minimum impact on carbon production globally. We should bear that in mind.

We can set against that the fact that we as a country are supplying coal-fired generating stations to developing countries. By contrast, the Governments of countries including China, Finland, France, India, Japan, Russia, Sweden, South Korea and the United States have recognised that nuclear generating capacity for the future is essential. Our Government should accept that reality to ensure that the same is possible for the UK.

Nuclear power is a zero-carbon electricity source. It should be exempt from the climate change levy and should be included in renewables targets for generators. Simply to say that the nuclear option is being kept open is not sufficient—we have to do something to keep the option open. Last autumn, the Government's report on research and development said that the industries that invested most in R and D were the most successful. It is the same for economies: the economies that invest most in R and D are the most successful. I would like us to invest more not simply in R and D on nuclear power, but
 
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in R and D on clean coal technology and combined and heat power systems, because they, and only they, with gas, are capable of generating base-load electricity. For all their merits, renewables cannot do so.

I strongly support my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State's decision not only to create a nuclear decommissioning authority but to establish its headquarters in west Cumbria. I cannot understand the pusillanimity of the civil service about the exact location. The West Lakes science and technology park already hosts a cluster of nuclear-related industries and is about 10 miles from Sellafield, where 60 per cent. of the nation's legacy is. It seems a no-brainer to look at any other site for the location of the headquarters. I hope that eventually people will see the sense of that. I warmly welcome those decisions.

The work force in west Cumbria have the skill, experience, commitment and trust of local communities to deliver the decommissioning and remediation work, which it is broadly estimated has a value of about £50 billion. I want the Government to ensure that the west Cumbrian economy benefits from the changes that British Nuclear Fuels and others will be obliged to grasp. British Nuclear Fuels has established the British Nuclear Group. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority should not be overlooked. Both organisations have considerable experience in successfully decommissioning major nuclear facilities.

West Cumbria very much depends on the nuclear industry for employment. The people who work in the industry support the policy objectives set down for their industry by the Government. Ironically, however, because of the delay in British Nuclear Fuels bringing forward its near-term work proposals, there are already strains in the supply chain, reflected in the threat to jobs in west Cumbria, even before the nuclear decommissioning authority has come into existence. I urge the Secretary of State to look urgently at those problems. It would be ironic in the extreme if, in looking for and supporting a way forward to deal with that national legacy, the west Cumbrian economy, far from benefiting from the changes, were to suffer damage. That would be unacceptable, and those communities' commitment and support for the future of the industry would be lost.

BNFL and its suppliers have had massive inputs into the west Cumbrian economy in salaries and through the supply chain. Those problems need to be addressed urgently, as does the length of contract that the NDA will award when it comes into being. We have so many objectives already on work programmes at Sellafield—some of those objectives have been imposed by the nuclear installations inspectorate. It would be bizarre, not to say reckless, to have a hasty, short-term contractual approach to these matters that would threaten some of the existing objectives.

In looking at the future, we need to consider skills. The nuclear skills academy should be located at West Lakes science and technology park. We need to look at the work of the taskforce that the Secretary of State has rightly established, not least because, as we speak, 7,000 vehicle movements a day take place at Sellafield, yet the Department for Transport is talking about de-trunking the only trunk road in west Cumbria. That is an obvious
 
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example for the Secretary of State's taskforce to grasp. It should say, "We simply cannot do that, especially at a time when there are proposals to bring low-level nuclear waste by road from Dounreay to west Cumbria, adding to the burden on the roads." That simply is not something that I or the people in west Cumbria are willing to accept.

5.50 pm

Mr. Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove) (LD): We welcome the fact that we have an energy Bill before us today. They do not come along very often; the last substantial Bill on this topic became the Utilities Act 2000. It is therefore with some regret that I say that the Bill misses some substantial opportunities and makes some provisions that we believe are mistaken.

The Bill fails to set out any clear steps by which the Government's White Paper is to be implemented, and fails to increase the chances of them achieving their targets. As far as we can see, the Bill does nothing to reverse the increase in carbon dioxide emissions recorded in three of the last four years. On the other hand, it entrenches in law the huge bail-out for the nuclear industry. My hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) will say something about that if he catches your eye later, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The Bill also extends the discredited new electricity trading arrangements.

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