Examination of Witnesses (Questions 1076
- 1079)
WEDNESDAY 26 JANUARY 2000
MR GRAHAM
MASON AND
MS MARGARET
MOGFORD
Chairman
1076. Welcome to the Committee this morning
and could I ask you to identify yourselves for the record?
(Ms Mogford) My name is Margaret Mogford and for the
next month or two I am heading up the secretariat to the UK Emissions
Trading Group.
(Mr Mason) I am Graham Mason, the Business Environment
Director of the Confederation of British Industry. The climate
change programme and its impact on business is one of my responsibilities.
1077. Do you want to say anything in a brief
introduction to the Committee or are you happy to go straight
into questions?
(Mr Mason) We are happy to go straight into questions,
Chairman, thank you.
Chairman: Before I start, can I make it clear
that there may still be divisions in the House. If there is one,
I have no choice, I have to suspend the Committee for 15 minutes
while people go and vote. Hopefully we will at least get through
the first evidence session before that happens, but it is quite
likely at some point this morning it will happen.
Mrs Ellman
1078. Are you satisfied with the revisions which
have been made to the Climate Change Levy proposals?
(Mr Mason) Yes, we very much welcome them, Chairman,
in the sense that the energy intensive sectors know if they enter
into negotiated agreements they will enjoy a sizeable rebate of
the Climate Change Levy, so in that sense we do. We welcomed from
the start, and would want to see that sustained, that the impact
of the levy on the business sector as a whole should be revenue-neutral,
but there are things which we would still be looking for. First
of all, I think the companies or sectors which would be eligible
to enter negotiated agreements should be extended, because the
current eligibility criteria are somewhat narrow, and the effect
of that is that you have companies making the same product but
by different processes and therefore one site will be eligible
for the rebate and another will not.
Chairman
1079. Could you give us a specific example of
that?
(Mr Mason) One which has come to our attention has
been in wire drawing. I understand there are two separate processes
and one qualifies for IPPC treatment and the other one does not.
So that would be a case where you had a distortion of competition
from that. The other thing which we are giving attention to at
the moment is how the £150 million which is going into energy
efficiency measures of various kinds—and I should have said
at the outset we welcome the increase in the amount—should
be spent to best effect, particularly amongst the smaller users
of energy and the SMEs themselves. That in a nutshell is how we
have approached the changes which have appeared in the Pre-Budget
Report.
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