Energy Bill
Debate between Lord Grantchester and Lord Crickhowell
Lord Grantchester
My Lords, we endorse the anxieties highlighted by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, regarding the use of powers in the Bill. In saying that, I will speak to Amendments 55ZZA and 55ZZB, as well as Amendments 55ZD and 55ZE, which are grouped with the noble Lord’s stand part debate.
As the Committee’s proceedings have continued in scrutinising the Bill, the Government have issued a response to the Delegated Powers Committee’s uncharacteristic dismay at the discretionary powers being sought by the Secretary of State in the Bill. Your Lordships’ Committee has considered this response and issued a further deliberation in its sixth report. Amendments 55ZZA and 55ZZB would implement the recommendation of the Delegated Powers Committee that all secondary legislation relating to the capacity market be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure, with the exception of Clause 27, which relates to the provision of information and advice and would be subject to the negative.
Each day in proceedings on the Bill, it has continually been highlighted that the Government are asking Parliament for an extraordinary array of powers to put at the disposal of the Secretary of State, with very little detail on how these might be used and constrained. Your Lordships’ Delegated Powers Committee stated:
“It does not … seem to us to be satisfactory that the Bill should have reached Committee Stage in the second House with so little known about the likely shape of the provision to be made about an important aspect of Chapter 3. While welcoming the additional information about capacity agreements, we remain concerned that not enough has been done to redress the imbalance between the scarcity of provision on the face of the Bill and the preponderance of delegated powers … unless the Government is able to provide the House with adequate information about the regulations for capacity auctions, the powers conferred by Chapter 3 are inappropriately wide”.
Without much more detail, it is impossible to assess the requirements for the extent and relevance of these powers.
Similarly, Amendments 55ZD and 55ZE would implement the recommendations of the Delegated Powers Committee that all regulations bar those made under Clause 7(10) would be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. To quote again from the committee’s sixth report:
“When we first considered Chapter 2 we found it very difficult, based only on the provision in the Chapter itself and the explanatory material then available to us, to get a clear idea of the real nature of what is being proposed there, and the scale and context of the delegations of legislative power involved”.
The report continues:
“Wide and significant powers of this kind deserve a high level of Parliamentary scrutiny, and we are not persuaded that the affirmative procedure should apply only to instruments which contain regulations made under any of clauses 9 to 11”.
While the committee was grateful for the Government’s co-operation in tabling a revised order of consideration for these clauses, which has meant that we have been able to debate today the clauses on contracts for difference with the strike price published, there is still an enormous amount of detail to come. On the capacity market, for instance, the issues just debated on the impact this will have on the continuation of old coal have only just come to light as a result of information published last Wednesday, 18 July, in the draft delivery plan. Had the Committee not had this information before debating these clauses, we would have been very unlikely to pick up on this and parliamentary scrutiny would have been less effective.
I very much hope that the Government will at least accept the amendments today which implement the recommendations of the Delegated Powers Committee. It will be extremely important that the Government deliver on their commitment to publish the draft regulations by October so that, as the committee recommends,
“the House will be given time to consider the published drafts before Report Stage begins”.
We all want to see the Bill on the statute book as swiftly as possible to end the flat-lining of investment in renewables which we have seen over the past three years. Given the volume of detail delegated to secondary legislation, it will be not the primary legislation but the regulations that might in practice delay the implementation of EMR.
Lord Crickhowell
My Lords, I have not intervened before now, on hearing this afternoon’s proceedings, but the reference to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has prompted me to get on my feet. I am a member of the Constitution Committee, which I think would agree with everything that has just been said about these clauses. Indeed, I am prompted to think that I must go back to the Constitution Committee and make sure that before this comes before the House at Report we will have had a look at the constitutional implications of the way in which this matter is being handled. So I have every sympathy with the points that have just been made.
I make a wider point. I have been quite astonished— although I have been a very long time in Parliament, in one House and the other—as I do not believe that I have ever seen a Bill come to this stage in its proceedings with so much information still unavailable; after all, it has been through the other place and been examined by countless committees. Indeed, if this Committee stage had been held on the Floor of the House, the Government would have been in deep trouble. In Grand Committee, we go along with it—we probe and press questions and so on—and say that we will bring things back at Report. The House as a whole would have been far more impatient with the Government about the way in which they have handled this matter.
If at times my noble friend the Minister finds there are interventions from both sides, including from the noble Baroness who speaks for the Opposition, she must not be entirely surprised. If the department has not yet addressed many of the issues that one would have expected it to address at this time or to have answers to and provide information to the Committee, it must not be surprised if it gets into trouble. Therefore, as we go through the final stages in Committee, my noble friend would be extremely wise to understand the feeling of irritation and frustration that is widespread in the Committee and temper her remarks accordingly. I am not suggesting that it is her fault; it is a nightmare for Ministers in this House who have to handle Bills of this sort, since many key issues are decided elsewhere and by others. But she must understand that, as a Committee, we face the most extraordinary difficulties. We do not know half the regulations that are going to appear; we have clauses such as this one, which give extraordinary powers; and the Committee is naturally suspicious.
I hope that, as we go further down the proceedings this afternoon, my noble friend will simply accept that the Committee is faced with serious difficulties and will be prepared to say, again and again, that she understands the concerns, will listen to them most carefully, and will be prepared to discuss them as widely as possible before getting to the next stage. I hope that she will try to avoid the sense of irritation and conflict that crept in at an earlier stage this afternoon.