En route to decarbonisation, the global energy price crisis has highlighted the current importance of gas as back-up when the energy contribution from intermittent wind and solar energy renewables is low. This fragile system faces further challenges with most of the UK's nuclear power plants, currently supplying around 20 per cent of our electricity, to close by the end of the decade. However, site proposals for new small modular nuclear reactors include north Wales, and the UK Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill also offers potential for a new nuclear power station at Wylfa Newydd on Anglesey, with companies such as Bechtel and Rolls-Royce already keen to establish new nuclear power there.

Further to my recent meeting with the chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, how do you therefore respond to his evidence that all the modern nuclear power stations planned or under construction in the UK can load follow—adjusting their power output as demand for electricity fluctuates throughout the day—and that in networks where nuclear consists of a high amount of generation, such as France, nuclear power stations routinely load follow or provide back-up, and that in a future UK grid consisting mainly of renewables and nuclear, nuclear would therefore be capable of load following or providing that back-up?