Energy Bill [HL]

Baroness Byford Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, government Amendment 20 places controls on the disclosure of information. Clause 7 of the Bill as introduced provides the Secretary of State with the power to require information from the OGA for certain purposes which are listed in subsection (1). The Secretary of State may disclose such information onwards for these same purposes or if required to under legislation, or with the consent of the OGA and, where applicable, that of the original information holder.

This amendment applies restrictions on the ability of any subsequent holders of this information to further disclose such information. It will ensure that they may do so only if required under or by an Act of Parliament or with the consent of the OGA and, where applicable, of the original provider of the information. This will ensure that potentially commercially valuable information provided to the OGA cannot be disclosed by subsequent holders of information except in certain narrowly prescribed circumstances. I beg to move.

[Baroness Byford (Con)]

My Lords, I will contribute to this short debate by thanking the Minister for reconsidering this aspect of the Bill, which certainly caused me, and one or two other noble Lords, slight concerns as to what material was protected and how it should be protected. I welcome the amendment he has moved tonight. It is extremely important that the balance is right between the value of sharing information and the value of keeping protected, in a proper manner, information that really should be protected. I will not delay the House any longer but thank the Minister for having given thought to our discussions in Committee. I am happy to support this amendment.

[Baroness Worthington]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for introducing Amendment 20 and to the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, for her comments. I am sure it is correct that material should be used only for the purpose for which it is provided, but I am left wondering what the concern or fear was. If the Minister will bear with me, I would like just one further clarification as to what, in real-world terms, we are avoiding here. Obviously we do not want unnecessary disclosure if the information is going to be misused, but I wonder what this is really for.