Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Thursday 16th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am grateful to the Secretary of State, but we do not need to have a Second Reading debate on the state of the economy and we are not going to do so.

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

2. What progress he has made on bringing forward proposals for reform of energy markets to improve security of supply.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)]

I am delighted that there is so much recognition of the need to address our energy security. The Government have moved quickly to enhance our security of energy supply. We are developing a further package of measures to improve gas security. In the autumn we will be launching the most far-reaching reforms of the electricity market, which will look at the measures needed to secure investment in new capacity, and in July we introduced a new long-term regime for new grid connections.

[Paul Maynard]

I was pleased to hear the Minister refer to gas security given that according to some predictions 70% of our gas supply may in future be imported from overseas. Will he reassure my constituents that when proposals are made for new gas storage sites security, safety and geological hazard will not be put second to the need for more gas sites in this country?

[Charles Hendry]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we have to look at each proposed site, location by location. We have to be satisfied about the security and safety of each location, but there is no doubt that we have historically had low levels of gas storage compared with other European countries, and we are keen to address that as well as looking at issues such as long-term contracts and more pipeline interconnections, which all have an important part to play in this process.