Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between Lord Bradshaw and Lord Marland

Tuesday 18th December 2012 Grand Committee

[Lord Marland]

All that is important is that the consumer or customer, by which we mean the general public, recognises that if there is malpractice—a rare event—misinterpretation or something like that, someone ultimately has to be able to intervene in that process to ensure that it is put on the right track. One would hope that people would do the honourable thing and resign. However, sadly, we are not entirely in that world any more; it passed us by a few years ago, to my great regret. One could not therefore ultimately rely on that happening and you need a deterrent for it. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, knows this better than I do. He knows regulators backwards and has been involved closely with them. I have huge respect for his knowledge in that area.

All this seeks to do is complement the existing reforms that we are putting in the Bill. As I have said, it is a good government amendment and the amendments enunciated by the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, are of interest and not unnecessarily unreasonable, but they could be clarified.

[Lord Bradshaw]

Perhaps the noble Lord would answer my question about how long it will take to bring the machinery into effect. If, for example, the Government are dissatisfied with the way an industry is being regulated, they presumably will make that clear. But if they have to resort subsequently to producing a statutory instrument, how long will it take for that to have an effect?

[Lord Marland]

The Secretary of State would intervene only if an agreement had not been reached with the various parties on the direction of travel. As we all know, that is a big “if”. He then has to do an impact assessment and would have to consult for three months. I apologise, it would be for 12 weeks. Whether it is 12 weeks or three months is a very important differentiation because sometimes we work on working weeks and on others we do not. Therefore, let us say 12 weeks.

I do not think that any of this is unreasonable. If we have failed to determine through the channels of discussions why something is being done wrong, or are getting nowhere with it and feel that the public are better protected by the action that we are going to take, we have to have a way to be able to do it. That is all that we are seeking to do.

EU: Emissions Trading Scheme

Debate between Lord Bradshaw and Lord Marland

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bradshaw]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the European Union’s emissions trading scheme in the light of recent allegations of fraud in the trading of permits.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Lord Marland)]

My Lords, the European Union emissions trading system continues to provide an effective means of incentivising cost-effective reductions in emissions from heavy industry. The UK’s ETS registry is widely seen as the most secure in Europe and has not suffered any cyberattacks. The Government have been working closely with the European Commission to demonstrate the security of the UK registry, and I can confirm that it will reopen tomorrow morning. We will continue to work to ensure improved levels of security in other member states’ registries. I refer the noble Lord to the Written Ministerial Statement made to the House of Commons by Gregory Barker this morning.

[Lord Bradshaw]

I thank the Minister for that reply. Does he agree that the trading scheme is the basis on which airlines are able, for example, to claim credits for the fuel they burn, and that any weakness in the system and the system of certificates of origin would be a very serious blow to the industry?

[Lord Marland]

I totally agree with that statement. I would just point out to the noble Lord that airlines will not join the system until 2012, so it is hard to evaluate the role of the system in that regard. By way of evaluation, it will be very interesting to see how it works, because airlines will be registering their carbon in the country to which they send their planes most often rather than in the country where they are domiciled. So there are one or two things that need to be looked at before 2012. However, I completely agree with the noble Lord in the sentiment of his question.