News focus: the government's energy review

On 23 January 2006 Secretary of State and Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks launched the government's consultation document "Our Energy Challenge: securing clean, affordable energy for the long term".

A further round of consultation was announced in May 2007, after Greenpeace challenged the original process.

With thousands of members working in the energy sector Prospect is actively involved in this debate.

May 2007: Prospect welcomed the government’s consultation on the construction of a new generation of nuclear power stations, but said the White Paper was doomed to fail unless ministers mounted an engineering skills drive to attract new recruits to the industry.

October 2006: Prospect makes a formal submission to the government's Energy Challenge review. Read our submission on the policy framework for new nuclear build.

3 October 2006: Prospect hosts a seminar on new nuclear build, with top-level industry speakers. Read our report of the seminar, with extracts from the speakers' contributions.

11 July 2006: The government published the findings of its energy review. Prospect welcomed its support for new nuclear generation as part of a balanced energy policy for the UK.

April 2006: Prospect submitted its officlal response to the government's review of energy policy.

28 February 2006: A conference of more than 300 trade unionists, business people and environmentalists came together at the TUC to discuss the key issues facing society as the government reviews its energy policy. Read our report of this joint TUC-CBI and Carbon Trust conference.

9 March 2006: Prospect hosted a seminar at its headquarters in London that brought members from around the UK together to hear the government’s point of view, get across their opinions, and feed their comments into the union's official response to the energy review. Read the full report of our energy review seminar.