Written evidence to be reported to the House
Energy Bill
12:00 pm
Alistair Buchanan: Yes, I can take that further. You probably do not want to hear this, but I think that broadly there are five models that you might want to look at. I should say at the outset that we feel that we can do our job with the remit that we were given in 2003. In that year, we were given social and environmental guidance by Ministers. Importantly, however, remember that any significant financial matter has to be dealt with by the Secretary of State—by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs or the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. We were given guidance in 2003. In 2004, Parliament gave us a sustainability duty. Helpfully, under the Lazarowicz Bill last year, there were significant improvements in administration—for example, of the renewables obligation certificates scheme.
The five options that have been raised over the past few months are these. The first route is a sustainability duty, which is primary to an economic duty. The second route is the concept that Ofcom has, which is that you have a citizens duty, as well as your consumer one. Ofcom appears to manage that very well; it appears to understand how it would handle conflicts between the citizen and the consumer, and it has a route march setting out how conflicts should be resolved. The third route would be to use additional guidance. That may be something that the Government may want to consider.
The fourth route would be to look at our secondary duties. Currently, our primary duty is to promote and protect the consumer effectively wherever possible, through competition in the markets. Our secondary duty tells us that that we have to be mindful of a certain group of consumers—vulnerable consumers. Particularly highlighted are the elderly and those who live in rural areas. Perhaps you want to revisit that—for example, by considering whether children should be included in that category. When I was speaking to the Scottish Affairs Committee on fuel poverty in Scotland, that certainly seemed to concern them. Finally, you have the reinstatement as a secondary duty of sustainability.
I think those are your five models. I believe that Ofgem currently can carry out its functions with the duties and roles that you have given us; but clearly, it is going to be something that you want to debate quite actively in the next few months.