Meeting of the Parliament 24 June 2026 [Draft]
Liam Kerr has been able to advise the SNP himself, and I absolutely agree with his point. These matters are interconnected, and I will continue with that point.
Despite all the success at Dounreay that we have heard about this evening, the Scottish Government still has an ideological opposition to new nuclear energy. I remind members that the UK Climate Change Committee, which is an expert-led body, has made it clear that nuclear energy is essential to the UK’s decarbonised electricity mix. Meeting our climate obligations will require significant volumes of low-carbon generation, and nuclear energy has to be part of that mix. I have said this before, and I will say it constantly: good public policy is all about context. Whether SNP members like it or not, the UK Government has made a decision. We will have new investment in new nuclear energy. Therefore, the question is whether Scotland seizes the opportunities to create jobs and investment here at home. We will benefit from the energy, but will we benefit from the opportunity to create jobs? That is the question that I put to the Government tonight.
Let me also emphasise that the success at Dounreay depends on a highly skilled workforce of engineers, project managers, scientists and technicians. Those skills do not exist in isolation, as Paul Sweeney and Liam Kerr said. They are sustained by a thriving nuclear sector that needs to have long-term careers, investment and innovation. I pay tribute to the highly skilled workforce at Dounreay and recognise the potential of a community that is ready to seize those opportunities. As I said to the Dounreay stakeholder group only a few weeks ago, I will fight in this Parliament for their interests, and I hope that the Scottish Government is willing to think big and do likewise.