Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Tuesday 20th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Before I call the shadow Minister, I know the House will want to join me in welcoming Speaker Elisabetta Casellati of the Italian Senate—a distinguished parliamentarian and the first female holder of that office. Madam Speaker, we wish you and your colleagues well on this visit and in all the important work that you do.

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

The Government say in their clean growth plan—indeed, the Minister has said it this morning—that they want to see more people investing in solar without Government support. I cannot think of a better way to discourage people who might be thinking of investing in solar than telling them that they will be expected to give away to the national grid half the electricity they generate from their investment. When we talk about the export tariff, we are not talking about a subsidy; we are talking about a payment for goods supplied. The Minister has elided the feed-in tariff and the export tariff. Can she just accept that she has messed things up on this occasion, call off talk of removing the export tariff and get on with using that tariff to support future subsidy-free solar investment?

Point of Order

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Tuesday 20th November 2018 Commons Chamber

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

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am afraid that leaping to my feet is a thing of the past. I am sure that you are aware of the recent European Court of Justice ruling on the future of the UK energy capacity market, and of the problems that this may cause for energy providers. I am aware that the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has made an unsatisfactory and possibly misleading written statement on this matter. Have you received any indication that he will be making an oral statement to the House to enable hon. Members to ask him how he intends to respond to the ruling and how the capacity market might be reformed in order to comply with it?

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order, and for his characteristic courtesy in giving me advance notice of his intention to raise it. The answer is twofold. First, I have received no indication that the Secretary of State or any other Minister in the Department intends to make an oral statement on the matter. Secondly, if the hon. Gentleman is dissatisfied, as he has indicated he is, there are avenues open to him to try to secure attention to the issue in the Chamber. As an experienced and versatile Member of this House, he will know what those avenues are. I suppose I should add, in parenthesis, in respect of his dissatisfaction, that every Member is responsible for the accuracy and veracity of what he or she says in the Chamber, and that if the Minister judges that an error has been made, it is incumbent on the Minister to correct the record. I feel sure that the hon. Gentleman, who is nothing if not a persistent scrutineer of the Executive, will keep his beady eye on this matter.



Bill Presented

Department for International Trade (Abolition) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Tom Brake, supported by Sir Vince Cable, Jo Swinson, Jonathan Edwards, Alistair Carmichael, Christine Jardine, Sir Edward Davey, Norman Lamb and Layla Moran, presented a Bill to make provision for the abolition of the Department for International Trade; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 25 January 2019, and to be printed (Bill 290).

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Wednesday 26th April 2017 Commons Chamber

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

Q12. I invite the Prime Minister, instead of going to Milton Keynes, to visit me in Southampton and take a tour of Southampton’s schools. If she does, she will find that those schools are in despair about the cut in pupil funding of 10% in Southampton, which is £475 per pupil or equivalent to the loss of almost 400 teaching jobs across the city. She will also find one school that is inviting parents to clean the school toilets—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Gentleman has got his point across with considerable force.

Implementation of the 1995 and 2011 Pension Acts

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Tuesday 11th October 2016 Commons Chamber

Mr Speaker

- Hansard - - Excerpts

I call Douglas Chapman. Is the fella not here? No.

Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)

- Hansard -

I present this petition on behalf of hundreds of residents of Southampton, the WASPI women of Southampton and the constituents of Southampton, Test in the same terms as my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South.

The Petition of residents of Southampton Test.

[P001762]

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Thursday 14th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The Deputy Leader of the House has other important responsibilities and she knows that. As far as the men sitting on the Front Bench are concerned, they all look absolutely fine and are doing the right thing—simply nodding in the appropriate places.

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

I thank the Minister for her kind comments this morning. I, too, enjoyed our exchanges—and the chocolate peanuts.

The CMA’s final report has been characterised as blaming sticky customers for not switching and condoning penalties on them if they continue not to switch. Does the Minister agree with that analysis?

Town and Country Planning (Electricity Generating Consent)

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

1st reading: House of Commons
Wednesday 4th May 2016 Commons Chamber

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

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Have you received immediate notification of a statement by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on the admission by the chairman of Arriva in France that 400 dossiers relating to parts of reactors meeting required standards have been falsified, and on the extent to which those falsifications were present in the generic design assessment process for the operation of Arriva reactors in the UK?

[Mr Speaker]

I have received no indication that the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has any plans to make a statement to the House on that extremely important matter. The hon. Gentleman may be dissatisfied by that news. If he is, he has manifold ways in which to pursue the matter through the use of the Order Paper and the facility of this Chamber. Knowing his experience and dexterity, I feel sure that he will use all the instruments available to him.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Thursday 25th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

That is a fascinating reply, but it is not altogether adjacent to the issue of wind farm applications, from which I think the Minister was led astray, good naturedly, by the hon. Gentleman.

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

Will the Minister confirm that, under existing secondary legislation, her Department is obliged to issue renewable energy certificates to all applicants until March 2017? Will she also confirm that her Department will continue to issue renewables obligation certificates after March 2016 in the event that her proposed legislation to bring them to an end is not on the statute book by that date?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Thursday 6th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The grouping is actually with questions 9, 15 and 17. I fear that the Secretary of State has not been as well served as he might have been. People must try to keep up.

[Dr Whitehead]

In the light of that deal, I am sure that the Secretary of State will now be anxious to make the UK’s contribution by laying down the order for the decarbonisation of the UK’s energy supply to 2030. Will he tell me when he intends to lay down that order and, when he has done so, what he has in mind for the decarbonisation range that will be in it?

Energy Tariffs

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Thursday 18th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am hoping to move on to the next business at 11 o’clock.

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

These proposals did not feature anywhere in the draft Energy Bill, the White Paper, the technical updates or the impact assessments, so I assume that DECC staff have been working hard on the new idea this morning. Can the Minister guarantee that when he has worked out how to do this, it will not impede the progress of the Energy Bill and its delivery to the House?

Electricity Market Reform

Debate between Alan Whitehead and John Bercow

Tuesday 12th July 2011 Commons Chamber

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

Does the Secretary of State agree that a targeted capacity mechanism almost inevitably becomes untargeted as it chases lagging investment? That inevitably also leads to overcapacity, at a high price. Does he accept that a representation market, coupled with interconnection, storage and demand reduction arrangements, goes with the grain of a low-carbon energy economy and the electricity market reform measures that he is proposing? If he does, why is he holding a further consultation on capacity mechanisms outside the time scale of his main proposals? Does he have no idea what a capacity mechanism might look like, and is someone twisting his arm in the whole process?

[Mr Speaker]

I was not very good at maths at school, but I counted five questions there. I know that the Secretary of State will provide a pithy reply.