BEIS excuse for policy delays has ‘run out’

Business and energy department told to “get on with it”

Last summer’s reorganisation of Whitehall can no longer be used as an excuse for delays in energy policy, according to a former government adviser.

Stephen Tindale, who advised environment ministers Michael Meacher and Chris Smith when Labour was in office, praised the creation of the department for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) at a nuclear industry conference on Monday.

He told delegates at the event, which focussed on UK prospects for small modular reactors (SMRs) that the Department for Energy and Climate Change which predated BEIS, was a “Whitehall minnow” and lacked influence.

He said that bringing together climate change and industrial strategy within the same department was a good move by prime minister Theresa May.

However, Tindale added that revamping ministries led to logjams in decision making. A host of announcements which were expected before last year’s change of government have been delayed by BEIS.

Amongst them are the outcomes of the small modular reactor (SMR) competition – part of a £250m pound investment in nuclear research – and the publication of the emissions reduction plan.

“There are always time costs when creating new departments that can be explained by bureaucratic reorganisation but that excuse has now run out, it’s time to get on with it,” said Tindale, who is now a director of the Alvin Weinberg Foundation.

He also said he was “alarmed” by perceptions that BEIS secretary of state Greg Clark had a good vision for energy. “Now is not the time for a new, updated vision,” stated Tindale. “Now is the time for action and delivery.”

Earlier, Tom Wintle, deputy director: SMRs, nuclear decommissioning and waste at BEIS, told the conference that the government remains committed to continued co-operation on standards and safety with EU member states on nuclear issues after the UK leaves the EU.

While acknowledging that SMRs faced difficulties as an “early stage industry”, Wintle said the technology needed to demonstrate that it can compete on cost with other forms of electricity generation.

“The challenge for SMRs is to be sufficiently compelling that sufficient private investment can be attractive.”

He added that the case for investment in nuclear energy remains “strong” despite recent bad publicity surrounding the future of the Toshiba-backed plant at Moorside in Cumbria.

Read Utility Week’s recent analysis of UK prospects for SMRs here.