Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ed Davey and Kevin Brennan

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

What is the Secretary of State’s position on fracking, particularly following the news that New York state has decided to ban it?

[Mr Davey]

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would like every Government to follow everything that New York state does, but we are an independent country and we make our own decisions. He will know that the Government’s policy on fracking is to support it through a robust and strong regulatory regime to ensure that health and safety and environmental concerns are fully taken into account, but also that we can exploit this important resource.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ed Davey and Kevin Brennan

Thursday 28th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

8. What recent assessment he has made of the Government’s progress on implementing green policies.

[The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)]

There has been huge progress in this area. In the Energy Bill, we are building the world’s first ever low-carbon electricity market and have already seen renewable electricity generation double. To date, the UK Green Investment Bank has committed £740 million of public money to projects in a range of green sectors, including waste, offshore wind and energy efficiency, helping to mobilise an additional £1.9 billion of finance from the private sector. From the largest investment in the railways since Victorian times to our leadership on climate change in Europe and the world, our record in this area is a vast improvement on the past.

[Kevin Brennan]

According to EUROSTAT, we were one of only four countries in the EU 27 whose carbon emissions went up in 2012. They went up by 3.9%. That cannot be right, can it, if this is the greenest Government ever? Is the Secretary of State’s new slogan, “Vote yellow, go blue”?

[Mr Davey]

If the hon. Gentleman looks at our work over this Parliament, he will see that we have been reducing carbon emissions. It is true that last year there was a small increase, because we have been burning more coal than anyone expected. As a result of shale gas, the United States has been exporting its coal. That is why this Government are working so hard to reform the EU emissions trading scheme, to make sure that we send signals so that the same amount of coal is not burned in future.

Gas Market Fraud

Debate between Ed Davey and Kevin Brennan

Tuesday 13th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davey]

I share my hon. Friend’s concerns that our constituents deserve markets that are fair, deliver competitive outcomes and keep prices as low as possible. He is absolutely right on that. Again, I am being asked to prejudge the outcome of the investigations, but I can say to him that if certain offences are proved to have been committed, very serious penalties are attached to them. If a cartel offence, for example, has been committed, it is a very serious one and it has a criminal sentence attached to it.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State understand that his laconic performance today and his rather puny response to all this will serve only to anger our constituents more? When they have already had to put up with confusion pricing, excessive prices and, now, alleged market rigging, why does the right hon. Gentleman not show some energy, get tough and introduce a new regulator that can actually take some action?

[Mr Davey]

I am afraid that I am tempted to say that we are making amends for the failures of the last Government in this area. The hon. Gentleman talks about confusing tariffs, but the last Government took no action on them, and Ofgem—the regulator which, if I understand his question correctly, the hon. Gentleman wants to abolish—has put forward proposals to simplify and reduce the confusing number of tariffs, about which his party did nothing when in government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ed Davey and Kevin Brennan

Thursday 31st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davey]

I may have to refer the hon. Gentleman to Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who are obviously responsible for agriculture. We should be clear that the groceries code adjudicator will not be a price regulator—that has never been proposed. It will be there to enforce the groceries supply code of practice. That is very important, because it is in the interests not just of the producers and farmers who supply the large supermarkets but of consumers.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ed Davey and Kevin Brennan

Thursday 18th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davey]

I may be about to disappoint my hon. Friend, because he will know that the coalition has some very expansive plans to promote the right to request flexible working for all employees, and to develop a new system of flexible shared parental leave. We believe that when we publish our plans and consult on them in the new year, he, and many businesses, will see that they are actually ways to promote business growth and enterprise.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

We have learned this week from the papers that the Secretary of State is participating in the “Strictly Come Dancing” Christmas special. [Hon. Members: “Hurrah!”] Does that mean that his policy towards business and the economy is “Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow”?