Clause 8
Energy Bill
2:15 pm
Malcolm Wicks (Minister of State (Energy), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Croydon North, Labour)
Of course, I agree with the hon. Gentleman that we are talking about very serious matters, both substantively and also because of the need to reassure the public, as he indicated earlier. I will reiterate what we mean by due diligence. Due diligence will be found where the licence holder has done everything it can reasonably be expected to do to avoid a breach of the licence. Where a contractor is used to carry out a particular operation, due diligence will be shown where proper steps have been taken to select a competent contractor and there has been an appropriate level of supervision of the contractor’s operation. I am not a lawyer but it is common on the one hand to specify penalties but to be sensible about what we mean about responsibility through due diligence procedures of different kinds.
I think the hon. Member for Cheltenham stepped into different but related territory which we touched on earlier today, namely how to monitor these facilities—geologically and so on—over a long time. The proper responsibility will be with the company but our Department, where necessary with technical experts, will also be in the business of inspection. That is the major way we tackle the concern raised by the hon. Gentleman.