Great British Energy Bill

Lord Roborough Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 15th January 2025 Grand Committee

[Viscount Trenchard (Con)]

I thank the Minister for his kind explanation, which certainly clarifies that. As far as my interventions on Monday are concerned— I spoke at length and several times—I take issue with and very much resent being accused of having filibustered. If the noble Lord looks at my contributions, he will find that they were all different.

I suggest that one reason why there have been so many amendments to the Bill is that so little was included in it. It is very thin Bill, but it has £8 billion of public money. Many of us are puzzled that GBE is being established effectively with £8 billion of public money, whereas Great British Nuclear, which has no public money to speak of, continues to operate in a kind of silo. I recognise that the noble Lord attempted to reassure the Committee about how GBN and GBE will work together, but I do not think that they can be described as comparable organisations.

I had intended to support my noble friend Lady Noakes and the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, on Amendment 88, and I added my name to it. I think that it is necessary because although GBE is intended to be structured as a public company, it will have only one shareholder, the Secretary of State. As my noble friend explained on Monday—she is well known as an expert in these matters—we must be sure that GBE will be managed according to the standards that would be expected by shareholders in public companies. That is why changing the nine-month provision for filing accounts to six months is so necessary.

I have also added my name to Amendment 89, in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Vaux and Lord Cameron, and my noble friend Lady Noakes. It is particularly important that the accounts must comply with the stipulation in proposed subsection (d), to provide

“an assessment of the extent to which”

any investments made or partnerships entered into

“have encouraged additional investment by the private sector”.

It is clear that the very long incubation period for nuclear projects places them outside the criteria for many private sector investors, but some public investment can be effective in unlocking private investment through match funding, as the Rolls-Royce SMR programme has already shown.

I also support Amendment 92, in the name of my noble friend Lady Noakes and that of the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, which would ensure that the Comptroller and Auditor-General must audit GBE’s accounts.

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

My Lords, Amendment 88, in the name of my noble friend Lady Noakes, would require more timely publication of GB Energy’s accounts, in line with public rather than private company reporting. I also support Amendment 89, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Vaux of Harrowden. On earlier groups I have addressed the limitations of private and public company reporting versus that of listed companies. I made that argument, given that taxpayers’ money, raised at great cost through tax increases impacting pensioners, farmers and all businesses in this country, is being invested. All this appears to have fallen on somewhat deaf ears with the Minister, who seems determined to avoid anything but the lowest level of scrutiny, transparency or accountability as to how GB Energy invests this, at least, £8.3 billion.

I also alluded to my comments in the debate on the King’s Gracious Speech and I remind the Committee of exactly what I said:

“it is private capital that has driven the rollout of renewables and infrastructure in our country, and it appears that Great British Energy will be targeting investments that private capital alone will not finance. That does not fill our Benches with confidence that these investments will necessarily be judicious. Please can the Minister assure the House that GB Energy will report on the performance of its investments regularly and in detail and that the Government will be held accountable in this House for the performance of those investments?”.—[Official Report, 18/7/24; col. 36.]

In response to this question, I received the following reply from the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock:

“The cost to the taxpayer of its set-up and investments will be carefully managed and monitored through Parliament, and investments will be subject to safeguards and risk assessments, similar to established public finance institutions”.—[Official Report, 18/7/24; col. 126.]


That answer may not have been the answer that I was looking for, nor the answer that I may be seeking today, which many amendments tabled to the Bill have also sought, but it does seem to offer at least some scrutiny through Parliament. It does not appear to me that the Minister here today is offering even that level of scrutiny in the Bill. His response in previous groups to amendments seeking this transparency and accountability has been:

“the existing reporting requirements are set out in the Bill, which makes provision for GBE to produce and publish an annual report and accounts”.—[Official Report, 13/1/25; col. 942.]

It is hard to disagree that the reporting requirements as determined by the Government are set out in the Bill. However, the point that these amendments, and many others already debated, make is that this is simply not adequate. One set of accounts published annually up to nine months after the year end, with the potential for minimal levels of detailed reporting, is effectively writing GB Energy a blank cheque, with next to no external oversight.

As other noble Lords have suggested to the Minister, if the Government were willing to table amendments to allow for greater scrutiny in a timely manner of the financial performance of investments, and the progress in achieving the overall objectives of increasing employment, reducing household electricity bills and reducing carbon emissions, I am sure that the Committee could be satisfied, without taking so much time making similar points. On previous groups the Minister has called this filibustering. That is an unfair characterisation, at least of the groups that I have taken part in. The Government have proven deaf to the Committee’s reasonable requests, but that will not make them go away.

I am particularly taken by Amendment 89 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, and not in the least surprised to see that it has so many supporters. It avoids amendments to Clause 6, which the Minister has pointed out is the wrong place in the Bill for such amendments, and to which my noble friend Lady Noakes has given authoritative support, but it addresses key reporting requirements around the receipt of subsidies, reporting on individual investments, achievement of objectives and strategic priorities, and impacts on the wider financial ecosystem. For these reasons, I believe it is an excellent amendment. However, it may still be lacking by relying on the relatively lax Companies House requirements for limited companies, so I also support Amendment 88 in the name of my noble friend Lady Noakes to make reporting in line with that for public companies.

As I have argued in previous groups, in support of my noble friend Lord Petitgas, who is in his place, there is a strong argument that quarterly reporting should also be required, in line with the listing requirements for publicly traded companies. As I have pointed out, if companies worth less than £100 million can comply with this, I do not believe it is a challenge for the £8.3 billion-plus GB Energy. This would also impose more disciplined reporting on GB Energy’s investees.

Why is it that the Government are so resistant to GB Energy showing proper transparency and accountability, even less than the modest commitments that I read in my response to the King’s Speech? What do the Government fear, if they are so convinced that it is worth while taking so much taxpayers’ money and investing it in energy, which in theory will be a good financial deal for the taxpayer? Last year’s business-unfriendly Budget, despite the protestations that it was pro-business and pro-growth, fills us all with concern that this Government do not understand business.

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

My Lords, I am not sure what the opposite of a filibuster is, but I am going to try. I add my support to Amendments 88 and 92. They are both simple, timely, consistent and robust: elements of good housekeeping, quite frankly.

I also add my support to Amendment 89. We need to draw lessons from the experience with the water industry, whose reporting was opaque. It simply was not transparent enough on key areas of its financial structuring. This amendment would tease out the things that people need to know—people who are not forensic accountants going through the balance sheets reported by companies. Therefore, I thoroughly endorse Amendment 89.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Young of Old Scone (Lab)]

I hope that in writing this note, which I welcome, the Minister will give us an account of how GBE will report on the strategic priorities set by the Government, and that they will include not just climate but environmental and biodiversity targets. They are the twin crises that GBE is helping to solve.

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

The noble Lord mentioned that the minimum requirement was the nine-month reporting window under the Companies Act. Could he give us an idea now of what he sees as a desirable reporting timeframe? If he would like to reflect, perhaps he could include those thoughts in his letter.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

I do not think so. Clearly, there is a statutory requirement. All I was saying is that our experience in my department is that the bodies that have a similar discipline have generally reported well within that figure. I am certainly happy to say that one would always hope that an organisation such as this would report in a timely fashion, but I cannot go any further than that.