Ministerial Correction

Thursday 11th June 2015 Ministerial Corrections

Thursday 11 June 2015

Energy and Climate Change

Thursday 11th June 2015 Ministerial Corrections

Climate Change

The following is an extract from the speech made by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the Opposition day debate on 10 June 2015.

[Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)]

I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend to her new job, and very well deserved it is too. While I support everything that we can do with regard to renewable energy, does she not agree that we have a particular problem in the south-west, namely the vast solar farms that are springing up across the land? Hundreds of acres of good agricultural land in my constituency are being wasted, and replaced by the vanity mirrors that are solar farms. Is there any way of limiting them to industrial sites, schools and so on?

[Amber Rudd]

My hon. Friend is right. We have introduced limitations for large solar farms, and we will consider what else we can do in this regard. I also agree with him that solar energy is best dealt with by community energy projects. It should not be on people’s houses; it should be on public buildings and factories. That is an excellent way of generating solar energy, and it has become much more affordable and possible since the price has fallen so much under this Government and the previous one.

[Official Report, 10 June 2015, Vol. 596, c. 1277.]

Letter of correction from Amber Rudd:

An error has been identified in the response I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr Gray) during the Opposition day debate on climate change.

The correct response should have been:

[Amber Rudd]

My hon. Friend is right. We have introduced limitations for large solar farms, and we will consider what else we can do in this regard. I also agree with him that solar energy is best dealt with by community energy projects. It should be on people’s houses; it should be on public buildings and factories. That is an excellent way of generating solar energy, and it has become much more affordable and possible since the price has fallen so much under this Government and the previous one.