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Mr. Laurence Robertson: It is noticeable that the Minister excluded Finland from his list of examples. It
 
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decided that it needed a new nuclear reactor because it did not want to be over-dependent on imported gas from Russia. It also has a consortium of businesses to invest in the building of that new nuclear reactor, on the promise that the electricity it produces will be bought.

Mr. Timms: The hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to Finland, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, South-East (Dr. Iddon). There are important lessons to be learned there, but I repeat that I have yet to meet anyone who wants to invest in new nuclear power stations in the UK. The position may well change in future, in which case we will consider that, as the White Paper made clear.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham) paid tribute to his constituents and those of other hon. Members who work at Sellafield, and I endorse that.

On wind energy, every megawatt-hour of electricity generated from a wind turbine is nearly 200 cu m of gas that does not need to be burned. It is important that the UK plays a leading role in the move to a more sustainable energy economy.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Copeland was right to draw attention to the employment importance of nuclear industries for his constituents. I was concerned to hear what he said about difficulties in the supply chain among his constituents. We have wanted to do everything we can to ensure that the supply chain is kept informed of work on the Sellafield near-term work plan. There have been three supplier forums recently on that, but if there are particular problems I should be grateful if my right hon. Friend dropped me a line and I will be glad to take them up.

Dr. Jack Cunningham: I can do better than drop my hon. Friend a line; I can repeat what I said earlier. There are already, I regret to say, real problems in the supply chain of support industries in west Cumbria because of the hiatus that has been caused by the proposals to create the nuclear decommissioning authority and because of BNFL so far refusing to bring forward its near-term work plan. That is threatening jobs in the west Cumbrian economy now.

Mr. Timms: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend and I shall certainly look at his point. He would agree that his point underlines the importance of securing the timely enactment of the Bill so that we can press ahead with establishing the NDA on the timetable that has been announced and thus ensure that any hiatus is minimised.

The hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Mr. Stunell) talked about the annual report on energy efficiency. I hope that I was able to make the position clear; we expect carbon savings from energy efficiency overall—household plus business—to be greater than they were in the White Paper because of the greater contribution from businesses. I can give him a firm assurance that we will hit our Kyoto targets—the UK is one of only a handful of EU member states to be in that position. Indeed, our target is to go further and achieve savings of 20 per cent. in UK carbon emissions by 2010.

My hon. Friend the Member for Ochil (Mr. O'Neill) made some important points, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, North-East (Brian White),
 
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on combined heat and power. My hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, North-East referred to the Cambridge study, which indicates a central projection of 8.1 GW of good quality CHP capacity by 2010, in a range of 7.7 to 9.4 GW. I know that he was critical of that study, but we have to add to that an expected contribution from the European Union emissions trading scheme. We have said that we will review the support for CHP alongside the review of the renewables obligation next year, but I caution against a view that we can somehow use the renewables obligation to deliver what we want on CHP as well. That would fatally undermine the renewables obligation just at the time when we are at last starting to see the momentum behind the investment that we need. My hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, North-East has been a strong advocate of CHP, not least through his private Member's Bill, and he will know that quite a lot of work is going on to support CHP. I take his point, however, about the challenge that remains.

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Mrs. Liddell) for her work as my predecessor in this role. I agree with her about the benefits of competitive pricing that BETTA will deliver to her constituents. She also made important points about skills in decommissioning, and clean coal. My hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, West and Penistone (Mr. Clapham), too, drew attention to the importance of clean coal, as did other hon. Members. The technology programme for clean coal that we are taking forward will continue until the end of 2006, with a fourth and final call for proposals being made at the end of this year. That will involve some £4 million. We expect to announce the successful projects at the end of the year, and, in addition, the new carbon abatement technology strategy will identify programmes to replace the existing cleaner coal technology programme. That is expected to receive similar levels of Government funding.

My hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood, like my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, West and Penistone, raised concerns, which I well understand, about the large combustion plants directive. I have listened carefully to the concerns that he and the coal industry have expressed. He will know that other parts of industry have diametrically opposed views, so we are looking very carefully at the analysis that we have commissioned.

My hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Mr. Blizzard), in an excellent speech on the importance of wind power, rightly welcomed the extension of the renewables obligation to 15.4 per cent. by 2015–16. I look forward very much to visiting Scroby Sands next week.

My hon. Friend the Member for Western Isles (Mr. MacDonald) underlined the important point that in many areas of the country there is strong support for making progress on wind energy. The Western Isles is one area where that is very much the case, and he was right to draw attention to what he called the huge resource for the nation that is available there.

My hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody) raised concerns reflected in the recent Transport Committee report on navigational hazards and the Energy Bill, which we have welcomed. We see that report as an important contribution to
 
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consideration of how offshore renewables and shipping industries can co-exist. There have been discussions with shipping interests, and I have met representatives of the Chamber of Shipping, following that up with a letter. I can tell my hon. Friend that Government consents will not be given to any wind farm developments that would be a danger to navigation. She mentioned the idea of safety zones, which the Chamber of Shipping has raised, and which I welcome.

We have had an excellent debate and I commend the Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.

Motion made, and Question put forthwith, pursuant to Orders [28 June 2001 and 6 November 2003],

Question agreed to.

Queen's recommendation having been signified—

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