Ed Miliband has tasked the nuclear police force with strengthening its presence across Britain as the Government seeks to protect key energy projects following a rise in climate protests.
The Energy Secretary has called on the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), an armed police force, to expand its remit beyond nuclear sites to protect vast gas terminals.
It comes amid rising geopolitical tensions and an increase in the number of climate protests across the UK, as groups such as Just Stop Oil and Greenpeace increasingly target fossil fuel plants.
Oil and gas sites are currently policed by groups from the Ministry of Defence, although the CNC, which employs around 1,600 people, will take over responsibilities in April.
Their immediate priority will be guarding the UK’s coastal gas plants, with job adverts indicating that the CNC is seeking new officers at the St Fergus terminal in Aberdeenshire and at Easington in Hull.
Roles are also being advertised for Norfolk’s Bacton terminal, which processes gas from the North Sea and supplies much of London and the South East.
The CNC confirmed the changeover, but said “it is not being undertaken in response to a new threat having been identified”.
A government statement said: “The Civil Nuclear Constabulary will commence responsibility for providing continued armed police protection at specific energy infrastructure from 1 April 2025, having been given consent to do so by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.”
The CNC works at around a dozen nuclear sites, the largest of which is Sellafield in Cumbria – containing more than 100 tonnes of plutonium and 81,000 cubic metres of high-level waste.
The constabulary also has a marine protection unit equipped to accompany nuclear cargoes shipped to and from the UK.
However, Mr Miliband’s decision to expand the CNC’s remit comes amid concern that it is not only nuclear sites that need experienced and armed police protection, particularly as the UK aims to strengthen its energy security.
Bacton gas terminal has already been hit by environmental protests in the past, while activists have also targeted SSE over its plans to build a gas-fired power station at Peterhead in Aberdeenshire.
Such protests are becoming increasingly widespread.
Last year, six Greenpeace protesters occupied a giant ship ferrying an oil platform to the North Sea off the Canary Isles, and refused to move for 13 days until it reached Norway.
Meanwhile, in 2022, hundreds of Just Stop Oil protesters blocked 10 oil terminals across the UK in an attempt to paralyse the country’s fossil fuel industry.
Fears over the impact of climate protests on energy sites are in addition other geopolitical concerns, particularly the prospect of a foreign state targeting UK infrastructure.
Such risks have heightened ever since the Nord Stream pipelines were targeted in a sabotage attack two years ago in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This was followed by a separate incident last year that saw an explosion rip through the 95-mile Balticconnector pipeline between Finland and Estonia.
Britain is highly vulnerable to such attacks given its reliance on foreign imports.
Subsea pipelines from Norway accounted for 57pc of the UK’s total imports of gas last year, with the Easington terminal receiving the vast majority of fuel. The UK also imports gas from Belgium and the Netherlands via pipelines to Bacton.
The main protection for offshore installations, including pipelines, comes from the Royal Navy and RAF via its “Quick Reaction” base at Lossiemouth.
This site operates four squadrons of Typhoons and three squadrons of Poseidon marine patrol aircraft, equipped with sensors and weapons systems for anti-submarine warfare, as well as surveillance missions.
A spokesman for the CNC said: “The Energy Act 2023 amended the Energy Act 2004 to enable the CNC to provide a wider range of policing services beyond the civil nuclear sector in the interests of national security.
“Any provision of policing services outside of the CNC’s core mission of protecting civil nuclear sites and civil nuclear material, requires the approval of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
“The Energy Act 2023 recognises that the CNC is an important national asset and enables the CNC’s specialist skills and capabilities to be utilised across a range of sectors to protect the public.”
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