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Energy Bill

I could not resist the opportunity to rise after the noble Baroness’s remarks. In the first instance, the separatist Administration at Holyrood want to pick a fight on energy in any way that they see fit. It is a question of political judgment as to whether or not we respond at any time—by ““we””, I mean Westminster—and whether it is appropriate at the moment. One of the failures of the Scotland Act is that we left opportunities for the frustration of the execution of reserve powers to the Parliament by means of legislation that does not relate to the functions that might be exercised. One could say that defence of the realm is a UK responsibility, but were we to seek to improve the facilities for the nuclear submarine fleet at Holy Loch, we might well find that that would be contrary to the separatist Administration’s interpretation of the planning legislation. One must consider the matter from a number of standpoints. In the short term, on the construction of new nuclear power stations, it is fair to say that Hunterston B will not be ready for decommissioning until the middle of the next decade and Torness will at the earliest be in about 2019-20. Whether or not Scotland requires two additional nuclear power stations or whether it requires two reactors of, let us say, 2,000 megawatts in total, is not for us to pass judgment on. It is for us to exercise our political judgment on whether we want to pick a fight on such an issue at this time. One area has not been given anything like sufficient attention. That is the waste currently lying in Chapelcross station in the south-west of Scotland, just off the M74 and almost within sight of the English border—for that matter, probably as close to Sellafield as any nuclear installation in the country. It would be a toss-up between Heysham in Morecambe Bay and that station. There is waste there; there is concern about whether it should be stored there in perpetuity or whether it should be treated at the appropriate place—and certainly taken to Sellafield for storage. At the moment, nothing is happening because of the anti-nuclear posturing of the separatist Administration. That is an issue, but, again, is it worth a fight? Those of us who—like the noble Baroness, I am sure—read the Scottish press at the weekend know that every weekend there is an energy press release from the Administration. Every third weekend, it is anti-nuclear. One is invariably about Scotland's oil; another is about anything in general relating to energy; the third is anti-nuclear. I am genuinely at a loss to know whether it would be desirable to pick a fight at this time. We should be looking at revisiting the devolution settlement and preventing the planning legislation being used in a vexatious fashion to undermine the legitimate authority of Westminster in areas relating to defence and energy in the round. I have responded to the challenge, but I am not sure whether the Government need to act at present. There are fights that are worth having right away and others for which we would be better waiting for a little longer. One problem in Scotland is that we have not dealt with the need for additional nuclear power in a sufficiently aggressive manner. We have allowed the debate to be dominated by assorted well intentioned tree huggers and malign separatists. The issue requires rather more vigorous attention than it has yet received.