Speeches by MacAlister.

“Would you accept that there is currently no process, facility or function of Government that would enable that? Not just for a community power company but for people who may wish to invest in a data centre and want to locate a small nuclear generator next to it.”

“Not a view shared by all communities.”

“They all add up. The question comes from a place of sharing the importance around that imperative. But if we have not made a permanent appointment of chair and chief executive in 18 months, using the parallel with Olympic delivery, and putting the two side by side in terms of decisions and time available, we would look…”

“Thank you very much, and welcome to the Committee. The first question is about an issue that was raised during the Bill Committee for the GBE Bill, and was related to the operational independence of Great British Energy. There was a lot of reassurance provided during that process that GBE would be distinct from other i…”

“On the appointment of the chief executive and the senior leadership team by you and the board, are you clear yet on who is making that call and what that says about the operational independence of the company?”

“Hi, Simon. I have a few questions that I will try to move through quickly. Just to pick up on a theme raised in the two previous questions, are you permanent yet or are you still interim?”

“And the same with the chief executive?”

“Spring 2025 is the date that has been shared, and Governments sometimes refer to having only two seasons in a year, spring and autumn. Can you give us any more clarity on when in spring you expect to make an announcement about the next stage of the SMR programme?”

“I ask because there has already been a series of delays. I know that these are not entirely within your control, but in terms of the part that GBN plays, they want confidence and certainty about a process that keeps moving, and spring is not a confident envelope; it is quite a broad one.”

“The spring window.”

“If 24 GW by 2050 were still the goal, would we be on or off track for it at the moment, with the delays we have currently had with the SMR programme?”

“Can you briefly talk us through the logic for the SMR competition process itself? The US Federal Government have taken a different approach—not for SMRs but for AMRs—and are backing what you might call two national champions, X-energy and TerraPower. They have co-invested, made the decision and are getting on with cons…”

“Thinking about obstacles and challenges for progressing—things like land and private investment—what are you most worried about risk-wise for the next stage of the SMR programme?”

“The next questions are about gigawatt.”

“Turning to the final bit from me, I have a concern that we are being too linear here about SMR, AMR and gigawatt programmes. We have GBN mandated with only one task at the moment, which is the SMR competition, and that then needs to fit into a world where we have the 2030 clean energy target. The SMRs will not play a r…”

“Would you accept that there is currently no process, facility or function of Government that would enable that? Not just for a community power company but for people who may wish to invest in a data centre and want to locate a small nuclear generator next to it.”

“They all add up. The question comes from a place of sharing the importance around that imperative. But if we have not made a permanent appointment of chair and chief executive in 18 months, using the parallel with Olympic delivery, and putting the two side by side in terms of decisions and time available, we would look…”

“It is a tricky one for you to answer, but I am conscious of how we set these things up. We still retain a lot of the decision making in Government, giving you some responsibility without the power.”

“Okay. You have your chief executive, your board, DESNZ, Cabinet Office and Treasury. How many people are involved in the decision stages along the way? Is that an efficient process for all the things that we have been discussing in this session about pace and expertise? Some real candour from you on that would be appre…”

“Just a final one from me, Simon, about the decision making as we move through the process towards FID for the SMR round by 2029, which I am assuming is still the target date.”