Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what effect the European Commission’s decision to grant the Green Investment Bank scope to operate with aided capital until mid-2017 has had on his Department’s policy on privatising that bank.

Anna Soubry

The original European Commission state aid decision on the Green Investment Bank (GIB) gave approval for GIB to operate until October 2016. While we expect to move GIB into private ownership during the course of 2016, the Government has obtained an updated state aid approval that provides the scope for GIB to operate as a state funded enterprise until the end of March 2018. This ensures GIB could continue to operate should the sale process extend beyond October.