Clause 84 - Gas and Electricity Markets Authority sustainability duty
Energy Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Mr Stephen Timms (Minister of State (e-Commerce & Competitiveness), Department of Trade and Industry; East Ham, Labour)
My hon. Friend makes a fair point. There were difficulties for smaller generators because of what happened initially with NETA. As he knows, we have tackled those difficulties and the generators are now showing confidence, too. I was at an exhibition yesterday at the Building Research Establishment where several suppliers were presenting very small-scale solar, wind and other approaches to very small-scale generation. We have changed the renewables obligation by lengthening the period in which supply can be accumulated; that is precisely to make the renewables obligation more accessible to smaller generators than it was at the outset. Such changes present a confident prospect for smaller as well as large generators.
Other issues may also give rise to the need for alterations, but to tear up the principal duty of the regulator and start again would be damaging to smaller generators as well as large ones. We have a strong and compelling framework for the development of renewable energy, including taking powers in relation to transmission charging. My hon. Friend the
Member for Brighton, Kemptown spent some time discussing the transmission charging arrangements, and those are dealt with later in the Bill, which provides for us to take on powers to deal with them.
The momentum that we need is being built, and this is certainly not the point at which to change course. The Committee must consider what Ofgem has said and done lately. Hon. Members who have expressed concerns, which I agree with, about the direction of energy policy will be encouraged by a number of developments on the part of Ofgem. Protecting the environment and sustainable development are not, as one hon. Member suggested, an afterthought. I agree that there has been the perception of a problem in that regard, but it is important that the Committee considers what the regulator is actually doing today.
We can look for examples in the corporate strategy, which was published recently. It was consulted on in a document last year and recently concluded. The chapter on helping to protect the environment states that Ofgem's
''statutory responsibilities include having regard to the social and environmental guidance from the Secretary of State, and to the broader environmental and social policy context in carrying out our work.''
That context includes, in particular, the climate change programme designed to implement the UK's Kyoto commitments and the sustainable development strategy. Ofgem today is clear that those are among its statutory responsibilities in exactly the way that members of the Committee have been calling for.