Lord Offord of Garvel makes maiden speech in House of Lords

UK Government Minister for Scotland Malcolm Offord has today made his maiden speech in the House of Lords.

Minister Offord was invited to speak at the end of a debate from from Baroness Jones of Moulescoomb.

The question was posed to ask the UK Government what steps they have taken to ensure that subsidies and licensing decisions related to the oil and gas industry are not subject to undue influence from outside interests.

An excerpt from Lord Offord’s response follows:

My Lords, it is a great honour to make the final contribution to this short debate as a newly appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland, making my maiden speech today in your Lordships’ House.

Please allow me to start by thanking your Noble Lords for

the warm welcome you have extended to me in this House,

to my supporters, my noble friends The Lord Kirkham and

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, and to Black Rod, the Clerk of the

Parliaments and especially the Doorkeepers who exercise

great patience as I wander around in circles.

I should also

give special thanks to my noble friend and mentor Lord

Leigh of Hurley and my noble friend and whip Lord Younger

of Leckie for sharing their invaluable knowledge of the

workings of your Lordships’ House.

My Lords, before turning to the substance of the important

question posed today by Baroness Jones, may I crave your

indulgence with some personal remarks.

I was born in a modest but homely tenement at 33 Bank

Street in Greenock, an industrial town west of Glasgow on

the Firth of Clyde.

I was educated at my local schools

Ardgowan Primary and Greenock Academy and, my Lords,

what a first-class education I received for free. I’m not the

first alumnus of that school to be associated with this

House: my noble friend Baroness Goldie of Bishopton

served as a distinguished Head Girl of Greenock Academy as

did the wife of my noble friend Lord Leigh of Hurley.

I was dismayed when my old school was closed in 2011

having been founded in 1855. It was determined by the

local council that, with Inverclyde de-populating post-deindustrialisation requiring the local schools to reduce from

eight to six, Greenock Academy should be closed because it

conferred too great an advantage on the students who were

fortunate enough to study there.

Surely, an egregious

example of levelling-down in Scotland, and a personal

motivator for me in joining this government’s levelling up

agenda.

So why Lord Offord of Garvel? If you walk down Bank Street

past the Wellpark to my parish church the mighty Mid Kirk,

and cross the road to the magnificent Georgian Customs

House on the Clyde, and then turn right along the river

bank, you will come to Garvel Point.

Garvel has long been a landmark in Greenock because it is

where the deep water is located and it was originally a safe

harbour for the fishing fleets before the first industrial

revolution transformed the town into a thriving trading port

and shipbuilding hub.

Greenock’s most famous son is the

inventor and engineer James Watt and the dock which

bears his name remains in use today at Garvel Point. In fact,

two of the three dry docks on the Clyde were located at

Garvel and a recent renovation project has re-purposed one

into the award-winning Beacon Theatre.

Which brings me neatly to the question before the House

today. Because one of my first ministerial duties was to

participate in COP26 in Glasgow, and how fitting that the

world came back to the Clyde to seek new solutions for this

climate emergency.

What a tremendous achievement for the UK’s two-year

presidency to increase the global commitment to net zero

from 30 per cent to 90 per cent of world emissions.

Some say that the UK

has a limited role to play in climate change as we account

for only 1 per cent of world emissions. Yet COP26 proved our

leadership still counts as we show it is possible to

simultaneously grow our economy whilst cutting our

emissions.

My Lords, this is what I learned at COP26: that we have the

capital, the brains and the political will to meet the climate

challenge. Participating as I did in the Net Zero Technology

forum (funded by the Aberdeen City Deal), I was so

encouraged to hear technologists from the oil and gas

sector in Aberdeen collaborating with Houston, Calgary,

Perth and Canberra as they re-purpose their assets and

people into low carbon energy sources. And how gratifying

that Scotland has such a prominent and world leading role

to play in re-balancing the UK’s energy programme to net

zero by 2050.

We have all the natural resources, the existing

infrastructure plus the scientists, engineers and skilled

workforce required to build a balanced score-card in

Energy. Scotland contributes 60 per cent of the UK wind generation

plus 40 per cent of the 160,000 highly skilled jobs already

working in Energy across the UK. This is called punching

above our weight in a United Kingdom where we contribute

just 8 per cent of the population but 33 per cent of the geography.

However, my Lords, we must remember that a key word in

this climate debate is “transition” and that it’s to net zero

not to zero carbon. With 35 per cent of the UK’s Energy needs in

2050 still coming from carbon (halved from 75 per cent today), we

would be foolhardy and irresponsible to ditch our world-class oil and gas sector in the North Sea to then increase our

carbon footprint by importing inefficiently from Russia and

Qatar.

The North Sea Transition Deal is an exemplar in the G7 of an

industry working in partnership with Government to ensure

net zero is met by 2050. By 2030, the cashflow generated

in oil and gas will contribute £15bn long term investment

into renewables. And by 2030, the UK offshore energy

sector will support 200,000 high-quality jobs of which

two thirds will be in low carbon.

My Lords, to answer the Question, in short, the UK Government does not

give subsidies to fossil fuel companies and licences are

awarded by an independent regulator Oil & Gas Authority

(OGA) within the framework of achieving net zero by 2050.

In fact, the High Court on Tuesday dismissed a case brought

by climate activists against the regulator, rejecting their

argument that the OGA’s actions amount to a type of

unlawful subsidy of the fossil fuel sector.

Licensing decisions are made by OGA which is

an independent regulator. Their staff are classified as public

servants and are subject to rigorous standards and codes of

conduct.

My Lords, in closing this debate, may I be quite clear that

HMG does not believe that decarbonising our economy

means shutting down the oil and gas industry as soon as

possible.

A broad range of stakeholders from entrepreneur Sir Ian

Wood to the GMB trade union have warned politicians

against creating an adverse investment environment for

this vital sector. There is nothing fair or just about that and

it will set us back on the road to net zero.