Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Trade and Industry – in the House of Commons at 1:49 pm on 19 March 1997.
Mr Bill Michie
, Sheffield, Heeley
1:49,
19 March 1997
Bearing in mind that 10 regional electricity companies have already been taken over and that there is another takeover in the pipeline—quite a few takeovers have involved United States companies, including Yorkshire Electricity—does not the Minister agree that we must toughen the regulations and give more power to the regulator so that company accounts are more transparent and there is greater defence of the consumer? If the Government do not adopt that approach, the new regulator will be nothing more than a paper tiger.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
