Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 3:00 pm on 11 September 2003.
Lord Sainsbury of Turville
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Science and Innovation), Department of Trade and Industry, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Trade and Industry) (Science and Innovation)
3:00,
11 September 2003
My Lords, maintaining the reliability of energy supplies is fundamental to our energy policy. Following recent events in London and Birmingham, we have called for urgent reports. The report on London is available in the Libraries of both Houses. Yesterday, the Minister for Energy announced that the DTI would launch an investigation into the power cuts.
In addition, with Ofgem, we are following up the recent major power cuts in the USA and Canada and will study what lessons, if any, can be learnt from the incident for the UK.
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.
