Select committee: Energy Security and Net Zero Committee
Recommendation 3
6th Report - Workforce planning to deliver clean, secure energy
Published 5 Dec 2025
Addressed to Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Energy Security and Net Zero Committee Workforce planning to deliver clean, secure energy All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
There may be a need for the import of some specific skills from overseas, at least in the short term, to deliver on targets for clean energy and the decarbonisation of buildings. We heard of significant efforts by the Danish government both to manage migration and fill their significant skills gap, especially in construction and related sectors. The Government should explore measures taken by the Danish government to address their workforce and skills. However, as the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper acknowledges, longer-term solution must be focussed on home- grown talent. Work on the supply of home-grown skilled labour for energy infrastructure and decarbonising buildings needs to start now. (Conclusion, Paragraph 31) 46
From: Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, 6th Report - Workforce planning to deliver clean, secure energy (HC 393), 5 December 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 27 February 2026 (deadline 11 February 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations on clean energy and retrofit workforce planning, and says it partially agrees with others, including on skilled immigration conditionality and impact assessments for procurement conditionality.
- On existing workers, it "agrees" and cites a new North Sea Jobs Service, and says it is "continuing to support" expansion of the Energy Skills Passport, including "exploring" additional sectors such as electricity networks and nuclear.
- On skilled immigration, it "partially agrees" and states: "We do not currently plan other labour conditionality measures beyond those we set out in the IWP", while keeping policies "under review".
- On impact assessments for procurement conditionality, it "partially agrees" but says conditionality "would not be within scope of requiring the publication of an impact assessment", and that it will be considered "on a case-by-case basis".
- On the Regional Skills Pilots, it "partially agrees", says it has "commissioned an independent evaluation", and does not commit to the Committee's summer 2026 reporting date.