PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Green Investment Bank: Edinburgh (10 January 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will estimate the potential effect on (a) the level of staffing at, (b) the level of expertise at and (c) relationships with the financial sector in Edinburgh of the Green Investment Bank headquarters in Edinburgh of the proposed privatisation of that Bank; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the areas in which that bank will invest of that privatisation.

Asked by:
Ian Murray (Labour)

The Green Investment Bank’s Chairman, the noble Lord Smith of Kelvin, is strongly committed to the Edinburgh office and the plans for privatisation. The Government sees no reason why levels of expertise or relationships would be compromised in the event of a sale.

By moving the Green Investment Bank (GIB) into the private sector and freeing it from the constraints of Government ownership, GIB will be able to increase in a wider range of green sectors, furthering its role in supporting the UK green economy.

Answered by:
Mr Nick Hurd (Conservative)
13 January 2017