Domestic Solar Panels

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist

Monday 25th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

I am very grateful to my noble friend for that very helpful suggestion. I will make sure the taskforce gives it earnest consideration.

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

My Lords, as the Government’s Great British Energy Bill enters Committee in the coming weeks, can the Minister confirm whether this will include the deployment of solar panels as part of its strategy? Given that I have the Minister’s attention, and following on from the questions from the noble Baroness, Lady Winterton, and the noble Viscount, Lord Hailsham, I draw his attention to GB-Sol, a spin-out from Cardiff University, which manufactures Welsh slate-looking tiles, which are suitable for both listed and heritage buildings.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

That is a very interesting point. It is worth making the point also that a number of British companies are assembling some of the solar panels imported from China. I agree that we need to look at all these areas.

In relation to the GB Energy Bill, the noble Baroness will know it is not our intent to place in the Bill the exact amount of energy generation we require from each source. That will be a matter for the GBE board in light of the Government’s overall priority-setting towards clean power and net zero.

Drax Power Limited: Ofgem Investigation

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, on the issue of data, I have checked with Ofgem. At the moment, it has no reason to think that Drax is not compliant, but it will not hesitate to act if required. On the question of subsidy to Drax, the noble Baroness is referring to the ROC system of subsidies, which the last Government oversaw for many years. The ROC comes to an end in 2027. The last Government issued a consultation on whether there should be transitional subsidy arrangements. We are considering the results of that work at the moment.

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

Noble Lords will remember the “Panorama” exposé of the illegal sourcing of wood pellets from Canadian forests, a charge vigorously denied at the time by Drax. Our Conservative Government introduced the strict criteria that allowed Ofgem to conclude that there was not “sufficient evidence”. What plans do this Government have to ensure that Ofgem can continue to investigate any company receiving a subsidy?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, it is clearly very important that companies in receipt of the ROC payments—and, indeed, where their biomass electricity generation is classified as low-carbon—are acting according to sustainability criteria. The last Government issued a call for evidence in 2021 and then took two years to publish a strategy, in 2023. On the revision of sustainability criteria, they rather ducked it, saying that they would produce a cross-sector consultation this year, which never happened. We are now working on that. It is clear that sustainability criteria need to be kept up to date. We will ensure that that happens.

Digital Competition

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist

Tuesday 5th November 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist]

I do not recognise those reports; I have not read them myself. However, the Government are committed to increasing transparency in digital campaigning to maintain a fair and proportionate democratic process. To this end, the Government announced, on 5 May this year, that they will implement an imprints regime for digital election material. The defending democracy programme, which we have already set up in the Cabinet Office, also works across government departments to strengthen the integrity of our electoral system.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, if the Government are so committed to transparency, why have they not released the report of the Intelligence and Security Committee looking at the potential influence of Russian interference in our electoral system?

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist]

The noble Lord is straying slightly away from the original Question, but the Prime Minister is considering the report and will report in due course.