Clause 5
Energy Bill
1:15 pm
Martin Horwood (Shadow Minister (Environment), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Cheltenham, Liberal Democrat)
Following on from what the hon. Gentleman has raised, particularly in terms of the impact on smaller companies that might wish to engage in this business, there is mention in the impact assessment of Petroleum Act 1998 costs. I am not familiar with the Petroleum Act, so perhaps the Minister could expand on what that is based on. There is talk of a price for the licence of £3,000, but a potential cost to the companies developing it of £31,000 a project. I think that that underlines some of the concerns that the hon. Gentleman might have had, although I remember raising earlier the possibility of perhaps extracting a little more money from those companies that are enjoying windfall profits.
The other points I was going to make were regarding some of the conditions that might be attached to licences.