Great British Energy Bill

Lord Vaux of Harrowden Excerpts

3rd reading
Tuesday 25th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath) (Lab)]

My Lords, Amendment 1, in my name, inserts a new clause after Clause 6 which requires the Secretary of State to appoint an independent person to carry out reviews of Great British Energy’s effectiveness. Throughout the Bill’s passage, the Government have made it clear that we are committed to ensuring that Great British Energy is subject to appropriate accountability and reporting requirements.

In particular, we have set out in the Bill that Great British Energy’s annual report and accounts will be published and laid before Parliament. The annual report and accounts of Great British Energy will be subject to external audit and the Comptroller and Auditor General will be appointed as the company’s external auditor, in line with the Managing Public Money guidance. The accounting officer of Great British Energy, once appointed, will also be accountable to Parliament, and the National Audit Office will have the right to review Great British Energy’s work and report its findings publicly, and to the Public Accounts Committee.

Having reflected on arguments made on Report in relation to independent reviews, particularly by the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, I am bringing forward this amendment. It will require the Secretary of State to appoint an independent person to carry out a review of the effectiveness of Great British Energy, including having regard to the statement of strategic priorities with which Great British Energy must comply.

The review prepared by this independent person will be submitted to the Secretary of State, who must ensure that it is published and laid before Parliament. The Secretary of State must share the report with the devolved Governments at least 14 days before publication. The first review must be submitted to the Secretary of State within five years of the Act coming into force, and there will be further reviews at a maximum of five-year intervals. We think that this sensibly balances additional accountability alongside the existing mechanisms of review and reporting, while not overburdening Great British Energy and ensuring that it has the time and space to take long-term strategic decisions as an operationally independent company, and as we have debated extensively during the preceding stages of the Bill.

I also repeat the assurance I gave to the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, on Report, which relates to additionality, and confirm that this will be an important principle for Great British Energy, particularly in respect of its investment activity. As such, we expect that these independent reviews will consider “additionality” as part of any assessment of Great British Energy’s effectiveness, having regard to the statement of strategic priorities in doing so.

This amendment is in keeping with a commitment I gave on Report. I hope noble Lords will support the amendment and I beg to move.

[Lord Vaux of Harrowden (CB)]

My Lords, I rise very briefly to thank the Minister for tabling this amendment, which, as he says, introduces a periodic independent review of Great British Energy’s effectiveness, as he undertook to do on Report. I am most grateful to him for the constructive discussions we have had around this as the Bill has moved through its stages. I also thank all noble Lords who have added their support to this through the process.

The amendment does not go quite as far as my amendment on Report, in two respects. First, as the Minister has just alluded to, it does not include any mention of reporting on the extent to which GBE has succeeded in encouraging private investment. However, the noble Lord was very clear on Report about the importance of the additionality principle for GBE and that he therefore expected that it will be covered by the independent review of effectiveness, and he has just repeated that in his speech just now, which gives me more than sufficient comfort on that question.

Secondly, my original amendment proposed a review every three years. While I think that it would have been better to have the initial review before 2030, which is the Government’s deadline for achieving decarbonisation —therefore, there would be time to do something about it if things were not going right—the five-year interval that the noble Lord’s amendment requires is a reasonable compromise.

I do have one question about the amendment. It was changed at the last minute to give the devolved Governments the opportunity to see the independent report 14 days prior to it being laid before Parliament. I fully understand and agree that the devolved Governments should be given the independent report, but I really do not understand why they should get it in advance of the UK Parliament. I would be grateful if the Minister would explain the reasons for that.

Frankly, however, that is not a major issue. I am very grateful to the Minister for tabling the amendment, which will be a very significant improvement to the transparency and accountability regime that Great British Energy will be subject to, and I therefore urge all noble Lords to support it.

[Lord Naseby (Con)]

My Lords, I took part at Second Reading, but, sadly, I had a short sojourn in hospital during Committee and Report. I will make three points, although I support the whole Bill in principle.

It seems to me that three key areas fall under this amendment. The first is mini-reactors. Three years ago, I was told that Rolls-Royce was ready to go. It is fundamental that the mini-reactors get going.

Secondly, I understand there is some discussion about the role of hydrogen. I have contacted two universities, Cranfield and Manchester, which are doing extensive work. Additionally, the boiler workers’ union is totally involved. Hydrogen work is absolutely fundamental to the future of our energy, particularly for domestic heating.

Finally, there is still a view that, rather than import oil and gas, we should carry on some degree of exploration in the North Sea.