Draft Offshore Combustion Installations (Pollution Prevention And Control) (Amendment) Regulations 2018

Alan Whitehead Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd May 2018 General Committees

[Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mr Sharma. I thank the Minister not only for her explanation of the regulations, but for her valiant attempts to make them sound interesting.

[Claire Perry]

I try my best every time.

[Dr Whitehead]

It really did sound quite interesting as a result. I say that because these are particularly dense regulations—dense in the sense of close-packed. Essentially, as the Minister has said, they are the process of transposing European directives into UK legislation, which I notice that we were supposed to have done under the directives by 19 December 2017. We are a little behind time and, should we get an extension of our leaving point of Brexit, issues could arise from that.

[Claire Perry]

I am always amazed by the hon. Gentleman’s ability to get Brexit into every conversation and I take the chastisement. Of course, we would not want to detain the Committee any further by delaying these regulations today.

[Dr Whitehead]

That is absolutely right. Let me make it clear that it is right and proper that we transpose the directives in the way the Minister has described, particularly in terms of the newer circumstances now in place offshore, which were not the case in 2013 when the original regulations came into place.

We have no issues with the process being undertaken. It seems to be a thoroughly sensible and well worked-out process. I am glad it now covers the installations operating in the North sea in the way the Minister has described. Indeed, she mentioned the two larger offshore plants—over 50 MW—and the existing 13 smaller offshore plants that will be covered by the transposition of the medium combustion plant directive.

I would like some brief clarification on a few points relating to those plants and how the regulations apply to them. First, the regulations include a phased implementation for both the IED and MCPD requirements on the point at which plants will not be deemed to be compliant and could be chased for enforcement on not being compliant. The regulations state that existing plants with a thermal input of greater than 5 MW will require a permit from 1 January 2024 and those with a thermal input of greater than 1 MW but equal to or less than 5 MW will require a permit from 1 January 2029.

I have two observations about that transposition. In fact, that grace period—as it were—before compliance is deemed to be necessary is not a transposition but a choice we have made in UK legislation. Strictly speaking, it does not relate to those two directives, and the ranges for the permits are different from those covered by the directives. The IED covers plants of over 50 MW and the MCPD covers plants of 1 MW to 50 MW. We therefore now have a different compliance regime here from that in the two directives. The question is, therefore, which side of our compliance line do the plants that we have mentioned—the 13 covered by the MCPD and the two by the IED—fall? For example, are all the plants listed as being covered by the MCPD under 5 MW? If so, they will have a long period before they require a permit. If they are mostly above 5 MW, the period for them is the same as for those covered by the IED.

The date of 1 January 2029 sounds like a very long way away and a long grace period as far as compliance is concerned. Can the Minister give further elucidation on why that period was chosen? If the smaller plants are all more than 5 MW, it may be that it does not cover anything; in which case, it is an academic exercise. That may well not be the case, but we have not had elucidation on that, which would be useful.

Secondly, are all the smaller plants external or internal? They are all present on rigs in one way or another, and clearly the larger plants will all be external, but the smaller plants could be partly or completely internal to the rigs. If that is the case, further safeguards may need to be considered for their operation. The Minister mentioned, for example, that there is no limit on carbon monoxide emissions, which could be relevant should those plants be internal.

Thirdly, to what extent do the draft regulations sit alongside or in any way supersede or otherwise replace the regulations that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has made under the IED concerning concentrations of emissions from diesel plant generally? I assume that it is mostly diesel plant on the offshore rigs, and that might well be covered by the DEFRA regulations as well. I am not clear from what we have before us whether there will be any dual or cumulative effect from passing both sets of regulations.

My final question is on penalties. I assume that the penalty regime that we discussed last week is the one that will apply as far as the plants are concerned, but how does it relate to the penalty regime that was in the 2013 regulations? That 2013 penalty regime has been left virtually unamended by the draft regulations before us. If hon. Members refer to the 2013 regulations, they will find little to enlighten them, in as much as the penalty regime relates simply to the maximum penalty provided for in statute, and that appears in principle to have been superseded by the penalties in the regulations that we discussed last week. Will the Minister confirm whether that is the case? Have the regulations from last week in effect produced another layer on the draft regulations before us through assumption of that penalty regime? If not, is there any necessity to look further at what the penalty regime in the 2013 regulations refers to, so that it is fully compliant with what has been put forward in the new regulations before us?

I hope that my bowling this afternoon will have been regarded as fairly easy. I look forward to hearing from the Minister what she has to say about those particular points, with a view to making the draft regulations as good as we can get them.