Meeting of the Parliament 14 May 2025
I would like to make some progress, Deputy Presiding Officer—[Interruption.] It would be good to do so without being heckled.
The EPL was introduced as a supposed temporary measure by the former Conservative UK Government, and was further extended by that Government and now by the Labour Government.
Given the adverse effects of EPL on jobs and investment, the UK Government should be considering the earliest possible end date to avoid more decisions such as that taken by Harbour Energy. Similarly, the First Minister has called consistently on the UK Government to work with us to extend the life of the Grangemouth refinery until the opportunities presented by project willow are live. That would have been a tangible demonstration of support for the workforce and the community. I have been working well with the UK Government on progressing project willow. Our joint working has been fruitful, and 60 companies have come forward to express an interest in the site. My UK partners also know of my disappointment and dismay, after many months of cautiously accepting that the UK Government would not step in to save the Grangemouth refinery, that it intervened very swiftly to save Scunthorpe. Do not get me wrong: it was right for the UK Government to do so for Scunthorpe and that community, but why is there a different approach for Scotland’s only refinery?
Then came the news that carbon capture projects in the north of England would get £21.7 billion-worth of funding, which is good news for the sector. We need all the carbon capture, utilisation and storage capacity that we can get. But what about the Acorn project and the Scottish cluster? It was abandoned by the Tories when they were in power and now, it is in danger—