Speeches by Hatton.

“We have already touched on Drax in some detail. For me personally, what assurances can you give this Committee, given that there was a case of non-compliance and yet it has still received significant financial support? How can you ensure that that is not going to be something that happens again in the future?”

“What are you doing to reduce non-compliance with those where they fall within the right criteria?”

“T5. Eden Portland is an exciting proposal for my community and, much like the Eden Project in Cornwall and Morecambe, it would be a hub for education and ecology. If delivered, it would boost investment and create well-paid jobs. I know that Ministers agree that this could be a real success story, so will they meet me …”

“I would like to start with looking at the area of non‑compliance with regard to sustainability criteria. It would be useful for me if you could start by telling us what you think the overall level of non‑compliance is within the sector.”

“I accept what you have said around this being a transition. It is a short agreement and it is very much a transition. Could you go into a bit more detail about what financial support might be given to other similar, large power stations beyond 2027? Secondly, it would still be helpful to understand how you reconcile th…”

“Do you accept that that might be a mistake?”

“You reached the agreement that you did in terms of how much public money would go towards subsidising Drax, but it does slightly worry me, and I am sure other members of the Committee, that that agreement was struck fairly recently, and yet this information came out just last week around them scaling back investment in…”

“Can you tell the Committee what you think the end point of that is likely to be? Lots of people on this Committee, I am sure, were quite shocked at what they read in the media last week around the fact that, despite this huge amount of public, taxpayer support, it is now backpedalling on its investment in greener techn…”

“In light of what has been since said by Drax, what work is the Department doing to try to offset some of that inevitable negative environmental impact that that is going to have? They are reducing the amount that they invest in greener technologies, in carbon capture and storage.”

“Is that not in direct contrast with what I raised earlier? Drax has said that it is reducing the amount that it invests in greener technologies.”

“To move the conversation on a little, I would like to go back to Drax and get a better understanding of what detailed work the Department has done in terms of the full-on environmental impact of continuing to support Drax from 2027 until 2031.”

“There is one last thing I would like to have a bit more understanding on. We have talked a bit about the work of the Climate Change Committee and what it has said, in terms of the role of carbon capture and what it should be doing to ensure that this is a greener technology. Can you offer reassurance to the Committee a…”

“Moving on slightly, how confident are you that the Department is intervening at the appropriate points to make sure that biomass does not have a detrimental impact on the environment? I appreciate that you commented on the support that is coming in from 2027. It would be useful for me and for the Committee to get a bro…”

“To touch partly on what has already been mentioned, but also to move on, it would be really helpful for me to understand what exactly DESNZ is doing at the moment to support the smaller-scale biomass facilities when it comes to carbon capture and storage, both those that do have a direct pipeline connection and those t…”

“Do you think that funding is directly proportionate to how much energy is produced, considering that often these smaller-level biomass operators are actually a lot greener and more sustainable and have a much better track record than Drax does?”

“Collectively, is it a significant part?”

“What I found quite striking on reading through the NAO Report was that when it comes to procurement and digital commercial activity, it feels as if it sits in a lot of different places and a number of different organisations. Also, within Departments, it sits in a lot of different places. With that in mind, do you shar…”

“In your opinion, is there now a clear sense of who the buck stops with when it comes to digital procurement?”

“One thing that the NAO Report picked out was that it certainly looks as if—and there are a number of stories in the press that confirm this—different parts of Government and different Departments interact quite separately with individual suppliers of digital services and do not often take a cross-Government view. They …”

“That is my slight concern. Sometimes things are done from the centre, from the Cabinet Office: that is where the guidance and instruction is given when it comes to procurement, but it is fundamentally something that Departments actually embark on, whether it is the commercial team or the digital team. With that in mind…”