Malcolm Wicks (Minister of State (Energy), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Croydon North, Labour)

This clause makes two supplementary provisions to the new RO sections of the Electricity Act 1989, as set out in clause 36. Subsection (1) aims to ensure timely delivery of a banded renewables obligation. We have set ourselves a challenging timetable in which to introduce our proposals to allow industry to take advantage of the benefits of the RO as quickly as possible. That is particularly important in the light of the EU proposals on renewables that were published recently. Our aim is to bring forward the renewables obligation order with the relevant change by April 2009, which was a commitment we gave in the 2007 White Paper on energy.

The nub of the point is this: to meet the timetable, it will be necessary to carry out a consultation before the Bill has fully passed parliamentary scrutiny. Subsection (1) allows us to consult on the draft renewables obligation order before the Bill receives Royal Assent and to take account of the responses to that consultation. The order will, of course, be subject to further parliamentary scrutiny and will be debated in both Houses before being passed.

Subsections (2) and (3) of the clause allow consequential amendments to be made by order to references in the Electricity Act 1989. The purpose of the provisions is to ensure that, once the legislation has been passed and Northern Ireland makes an order amending the Energy (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 to reflect the changes, references in the 1989 Act to the Northern Ireland order can be changed to refer to the correct numbering. Subsection (2) allows us to extend section 32K(2) to cover ROCs issued by the Northern  Ireland authority under the old regime so as to extend provisions relating to the transition from the old regime to the new one in Northern Ireland. This is purely a tidying-up exercise to ensure the renewables obligation can continue to operate on a UK-wide basis.