Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Hunt Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Tom Hunt (Ipswich) (Con)]

15. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the number of oil and gas licences issued by her Department on the level of carbon emissions from imported liquefied natural gas.

[The Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero (Justin Tomlinson)]

North Sea Transition Authority analysis shows that producing natural gas domestically is almost four times cleaner than importing liquefied natural gas from abroad. Without continued licensing, our dependence on imported oil and gas, including LNG, will only increase more quickly in the future.

[Tom Hunt]

I have always been a fan of us fully exploiting our natural resources. We have got to take a pragmatic route to cutting our carbon emissions, but at the forefront of our thinking must also be driving down energy costs, boosting energy security and not doing anything that enfeebles our country on the global stage. Does the Minister agree that this is the right approach in terms of energy costs and that not importing as much liquefied natural gas will also make our carbon footprint smaller?

[Justin Tomlinson]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend’s analysis. Utilising our own domestic resources is just common sense when the alternative is to import more fuels from abroad. It would be an act of self-sabotage to put restrictions on our own domestic sector, damaging jobs and investment only to liquefy and ship gas from halfway around the world and create more emissions in the process.

Energy Security and Net Zero

Tom Hunt Excerpts

Monday 12th June 2023 Ministerial Corrections

The following is an extract from Department for Energy Security and Net Zero questions on 28 February 2023.

[Tom Hunt (Ipswich) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to help businesses with their energy bills.

[The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Grant Shapps)]

I mentioned before that we are paying around half of the household energy bill. We are also paying around one third of business energy bills right now through the energy bill relief scheme.

[Official Report, 28 February 2023, Vol. 728, c. 629.]

Letter of correction from the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Grant Shapps):

An error has been identified in my response to my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Tom Hunt).

The correct response should have been:

Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Hunt Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Bowie]

I hear what the right hon. Gentleman says. We currently give sectors at risk of carbon leakage a proportion of their allowances for free, to reduce their exposure to the carbon price, with those free allowances being worth billions of pounds per year at current prices. The 2021 “Developing the UK ETS” consultation proposed to guarantee this level of free allocation until 2026, subject to activity level changes. We will consult no later than the end of 2023 on the methodology for distributing free allowances and explore ways to better target free allocations at those most at risk of carbon leakage.

[Tom Hunt (Ipswich) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to help businesses with their energy bills.

[The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Grant Shapps)]

I mentioned before that we are paying around half of the household energy bill. We are also paying around one third of business energy bills right now through the energy bill relief scheme.

[Tom Hunt]

A few weeks ago I went to St Nicholas Street in Ipswich to talk to some of the local businesses, including Bar Twenty One and Hopsters. Bar Twenty One has made a fantastic start to business, despite the difficult climate. Those who run Bar Twenty One talked about pedestrianising the street, which I support. They also raised the issue of energy bills and their frustration at seeing a decline in wholesale prices but still not feeling the benefit of that. Will my right hon. Friend outline to me and to those businesses what steps he believes the energy suppliers should be taking to support businesses and get them on to fair contracts?

[Grant Shapps]

I really want to see a well-functioning energy market, and I have written to Ofgem about this. There is a request for information about the challenges facing non-domestic customers. As we see energy prices fall like a feather, having rocketed up, it is frustrating not to see those prices pass through. It is not the only frustration I have about the energy market—for example, it is 10 times cheaper to produce offshore wind than it is to buy gas right now, but we do not see that reflected in the prices. That is why we are looking at the entire operation of this marketplace.