Energy Bill Relief Scheme and Energy Bills Discount Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2024
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Lord Offord of Garvel(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
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Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)
My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on the stamina he has shown over the last 48 hours. I welcome these regulations; had we remained in Government, I am sure that we would have done exactly the same—as was also said in the debate in the House of Commons.
The Minister alluded to the fact that energy prices are still quite high. I understand that within one of these regulations there is provision for an off-grid payment of £150. If that is the case, will his department look favourably on charities, public sector bodies such as schools and hospitals and, as he rightly mentioned, micro-businesses of under 15 employees—or even 50—so that they might remain eligible for that?
The noble Lord referred to unfair, and what I would call sharp, practices that are perhaps still going on. This is only anecdotal, and I cannot prove it, but there was a restaurant not too far from this building which I think partly closed and changed hands because they had an unbelievably high electricity bill in January last year, so I am delighted to hear that the Government have launched this consultation with a third party. It would be interesting to hear more about how those brokers might operate. What provision will be made to ensure that the brokers are reliable and able to operate within this sphere?
With that, I pay tribute to the previous Government for their work and the protection that was given to non-domestic customers, which was very welcome at the time. I recognise that we are still in a period of high energy prices and, with those few questions, I wish the SI a safe passage.
Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
My Lords, I commend the Minister for a pretty spectacular explanation of what is quite a complicated and technical exercise. These schemes were introduced, as was said, between October 2022 and March 2024 and, as we know, they gave much-needed assistance to non-domestic customers. We are dealing now with a small yet significant minority of consumers who have not received their finalised bills, due to ongoing delays in the actualisation process. My understanding is that these delays arise mostly from the use of estimated rather than actual meter readings, but they have created significant complexities for both suppliers and consumers, especially when one of the issues around this is the concept that the supplier can become “off-boarded” when they hit the actualisation thresholds, as mentioned by the Minister, of 95% for billed gas and 97% for billed electricity, which means they are no longer required to apply further discounts.
We agree that this is a legacy issue that needs to be dealt with. Our only issue—I am sure that the department is working on this—is the need to deal with unintended consequences, such as where a supplier is off-boarded but still has unbilled energy due to these administrative delays. The amendment allows for discounts to continue only in cases where a billing failure has occurred, but does that provide sufficient protection to the consumer if the errors are on the supplier’s part, for example?
Further issues might be that the amendment extends the rule limiting discounts on variable price contracts. Discounts can only be reduced, not increased, post off-boarding. Does that sufficiently accommodate fluctuations in wholesale energy prices that suppliers may face? Does it risk creating an imbalance in terms of supplier and consumer rights? Then there is the issue of disputes. While the original scheme allowed for disputes to be referred to the Secretary of State—a horrendous concept—the amendment seeks to close that avenue. I am sure that the department is all over this, but we need to ensure that, in the technicalities of actually making this happen, we get a fair balance between supplier and consumer rights. Otherwise, we support the passage of this SI.
UK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Lord Offord of Garvel(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
I thank the noble Lord. As I said yesterday, Europe remains a massive part of our trade—41% with the EU 27 and 48% with the euro 34—and that will continue to be the case. However, the growth areas for our markets will be the US and the rest of the world. SMEs recognise that and are pivoting to the Indo-Pacific region. DBT is putting a lot of effort into helping them get there fast and profitably.
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)
Will my noble friend make sure that there is complete fairness between exports of food and agricultural products from Great Britain to the EU and those from the EU to this country? Will he update the House on the position of seed potatoes? Can we export them directly to the EU at this time?
Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
I thank my noble friend. Seed potatoes are a specialised area so I will need to write to her on that.
UK-Canada Trade Deal: Suspension of Negotiations
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Lord Offord of Garvel(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
I fundamentally disagree that we are in chaos; quite the opposite. We are making great progress. The first thing that we did when we left the EU was do a trade deal with Europe that involved rolling over trade deals with 65 countries. We have now improved that with a further seven deals. When I was in Canberra two months before Christmas, the Australia deal was held up as one of the best deals it had ever signed. As we move through, because our economy is 80% services and 20% goods, we have now got trade deals that encompass services, digital and innovation.
We wanted to do the same deal with Canada, but Canada crossed one of our red lines. The negotiations have not failed. The noble Lord and I have done many negotiations together—we sometimes have moments of pause. The Canadians have crossed a red line where they know we would never accept the hormone beef trade deal that they want to do with us. We have said no to that, which is why we have stopped.
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)
My Lords, I congratulate the Government on the position they have taken by pausing the trade talks at this time, reflecting the high production standards that our farmers have to meet in this country. Could my noble friend explain what the position is specifically on exports of British cheese to Canada, including the excellent cheese produced in north Yorkshire? I understand it now suffers from a 245% tariff on export to Canada.
Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
Cheese is now a pawn in the game, and that has now become the focus of attention. When we were in the EU, we had 2,000 out of 14,000 tonnes of cheese allocated to us. That has now been taken away and allocated to Europe—France and Germany, mostly. We are now allocated 6,000 for the rest of the world. Canada knew that we had a right to roll that over to 2,000 within the WTO trade agreement. We do not have that now. That is £18 million of trade. Out of £26 billion, one might say that is a small number, but we know that the farms in Somerset and Wales in particular, which produce incredible quality cheese, have built up a superior market share in Canada. The Canadian consumer wants this cheese and has been buying and stockpiling it for six months in advance of this happening. This has only happened because the Canadian farmers want to send hormone beef to the UK and we refuse to drop our standards, as some people said we would do when we left the EU.
E-scooters and E-bikes: Battery Fires
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Lord Offord of Garvel(1 year, 8 months ago)
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Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
I thank the noble Lord for his question on that specific matter in relation to one part of the United Kingdom, but this is not a UK-central issue: it is an international issue. New York is considering the whole gamut of proposals; its fire department has implemented a range of activities, which our Office for Product Safety is looking at. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that it will hold a forum on 27 July to look at lithium-ion batteries and e-bikes after an increasing number of fires and fatalities. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has outlined lithium-ion batteries as one of its product safety priorities, while Barcelona has imposed a six-month ban on e-scooters on public transport and Paris has banned rental e-scooters. We are not alone in considering how to deal with this modern technology.
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)
My Lords, can my noble friend the Minister tell us how many e-scooters are in legal circulation? Private e-scooters are to be driven only on private land, including car parks and private property; rented scooters are the ones that he referred to under pilot schemes. How many will go on to become permanently rented, lawfully and with a licence? Will licences soon be issued for privately owned e-scooters as well?