Clause 84 - Gas and Electricity Markets Authority sustainability duty
Energy Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
Mr Stephen Timms (Minister of State (e-Commerce & Competitiveness), Department of Trade and Industry; East Ham, Labour)
I also welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Sayeed.
We have had an interesting debate on the amendments. My hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown argued for his amendment on the grounds of challenging Thatcherism and promoting renewable energy, while the hon. Member for Tewkesbury (Mr. Robertson) argued for it on the grounds of advancing Thatcherism and promoting nuclear energy. That illustrates the fundamental problem that there would be in following the amendment's route.
I begin by reminding the Committee, and my hon. Friend in particular, of the background to Ofgem's current principal objective. It has been said a number of times that it goes back 15 years, but it does not, and that is an important misunderstanding. The objective goes back to this Government's Utilities Act 2000. Labour has always taken the view, certainly since the early 1990s, that competition is a good thing. It was clear in our 1997 election manifesto that we wanted to sharpen competition powers and have more effective tools to protect consumers and tackle rip-offs because there have been too many examples of people being ripped off by big companies. We have made it a priority to take steps to deal with that, and we have done that.
The hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) talked about Labour party policies. I remember my right hon. Friend the Chancellor speaking to the Labour party conference in 2002. He made the point that, 10 years previously, he had spoken for the first time as shadow Chancellor and had called on our party
''to adopt a new long term policy for stability and prudence, to be a party of competition and enterprise as well as fairness''.
That was the background to our approach, and it was quickly reflected after the 1997 election in the utilities Green Paper. It reflected the importance of safeguarding the interests of consumers and promoting competition. We invited consultation on that Green Paper and then responded as a Government in 1998 to the proposal that the regulators should have a specific duty by saying:
''The Government confirms that it intends to introduce legislation placing a new single primary duty on the regulators requiring them to protect the interests of consumers, along the lines proposed.''
There was also a reference to competition. That is where the wording that currently applies to Ofgem originates—it did not originate 15 years ago. The same principal objective is included in the legislation that governs Ofcom and Ofwat.