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Mr. Speaker: Order. It is usually down to my fairness, so perhaps the hon. Gentleman will be called next time. He will be remembered; I will not forget him.

Mr. Oliver Heald (North-East Hertfordshire) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. It is obviously important that our proceedings be held in public and that commentators and others outside should be aware of what is happening. I understand that there is a document in which the Minister of State explains why he made his remarks to the House last week when reports had been received. Is it possible to find a way in which this document can appear in Hansard?

Mr. Speaker: I do not have powers to do so. It is up to the Minister, who will have heard what the shadow Leader of the House has had to say.

The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram): Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps I could help the House. I have submitted a letter to the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison), who raised the question last week, and I passed a copy to the main spokesmen of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. We tried to contact the hon. Gentleman by telephone today to tell him that the letter was coming; we could not do so. We faxed it to him and I personally put the letter on the board when I came to the House to try to make sure that he had it in advance of today's statement. [Hon. Members: "Put it on the record."] I am coming to that point. It has also been placed in the Library of the House.
 
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Mr. Heald: Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. One of the great problems with documents placed in the Library is that they are not on the record. That is one of the practices in this place that has arisen on occasion. There used to be 200 "will writes"; there are now 2,000. Should not this important letter be on the record in Hansard?

Mr. Speaker: Order. Documents placed in the Library—[Interruption.] Perhaps I can answer without any interruption from the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody). Such documents are public records when they are put in the Library. Hon. Members can therefore use them in debate or in any other discussion.

Mr. Peter Luff (Mid-Worcestershire) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I am not always a fan of modernisation but perhaps it would be in order if you reminded the Minister of State of the existence of written ministerial statements.

Mr. Speaker: Order. It is not for me to remind the Secretary of State. It is for me to get on with the main business.
 
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Orders of the Day

Energy Bill [Lords]

[Relevant documents: Ninth Report from the Transport Committee, Session 2003–04, on Navigational Hazards and the Energy Bill (HC 555); Evidence taken before the Transport Committee on 28th April and appendices thereto, relating to Navigational Hazards (uncorrected typescripts are available in the Vote Office).]

Order for Second Reading read.

4.34 pm

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Patricia Hewitt): I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The Bill is an important step towards fulfilling the Government's commitment to a sustainable energy policy, which we set out last year in the energy White Paper and which is designed to deal with three major challenges facing our nation. The first is the challenge of climate change, the second is the shift from being a net exporter of energy to becoming a net importer, and the third is the need to modernise our energy infrastructure to cope with changing technologies and needs. The Bill implements proposals on renewable energy and on competition in the energy market that we made in the White Paper. It also gives effect to the commitments on managing nuclear energy that we made in the 2002 White Paper.

Important though it is, this legislation is not the whole picture. Since the energy White Paper was published, we have been active on many fronts, set out fully in our first annual report two weeks ago. For example, we have agreed principles for a new framework treaty with Norway for a new gas pipeline capable of delivering 20 per cent. of our annual gas supplies by 2006–07. We have submitted our draft national allocation plan for the European emissions trading system to the European Commission. We have put in place stringent new social and environmental guidelines to help Ofgem—the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets—to regulate markets, while making a sustainable energy supply more achievable.

We have already given consent to, or have under consideration, applications for some 4.6 GW of new renewable capacity. Together with the existing capacity, that amounts to more than 60 per cent. of what is needed to achieve our 2010 target. The round 2 offshore proposals will add substantially to that figure. We have also lifted more than 750,000 vulnerable households out of fuel poverty through the Warm Front programme.

Mr. Kevin Hughes (Doncaster, North) (Lab): Does my right hon. Friend believe that taking this country into being a net importer of energy complies with part 1, clause 1, which states:

"The Secretary of State shall have a duty to ensure the integrity and security of electricity and gas supply"?

That seems a little strange to me.

Ms Hewitt: My hon. Friend raises an important point, and I shall come in a moment to clause 1 as currently drafted. However, as he knows, because we have discussed it on other occasions, although the United
 
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Kingdom has been in the fortunate position for some decades now of being a net energy exporter, most developed countries are not energy exporters, and that in no way damages their capacity for economic growth.

Mrs. Gillian Shephard (South-West Norfolk) (Con): Further to the previous intervention, when the Secretary of State comes to give that explanation to her hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster, North (Mr. Hughes), will she also explain what she means by saying in part 1 of the Bill that the Government should be required

"to develop effectively sources of energy enabling the UK to avoid undue reliance on imports"?

That chimes with what the hon. Gentleman said, and I am sure that the Secretary of State will want to expand on both those statements in part 1.

Ms Hewitt: I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for that intervention, and I shall return to that point in a moment.

Before I do that, may I underline the fact that the Bill has already benefited from extensive scrutiny? The part of the Bill that creates the single wholesale electricity market for Britain, the BETTA—British electricity trading and transmission arrangements—system, was published for pre-legislative scrutiny in January last year. The draft Nuclear Sites and Radioactive Substances Bill, which contained provisions on the nuclear decommissioning authority, was published for pre-legislative scrutiny last June. I am grateful to right hon. and hon. Members on the Trade and Industry Committee for their reports, which have been of great assistance in the preparation of this legislation.

The Bill has also benefited from full and thorough debate in another place. Indeed, there have been 75 hours of debate on it already, and some valuable changes have been made as a result. For example, we have clarified the scope of and extended the time limit for appeals in part 4.

Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich) (Lab): Before my right hon. Friend leaves the point about the amendments made in those 75 hours, can she assure me that her Department's position now is that it does not intend to make changes to clauses 100 and 101?

Ms Hewitt: I shall come to that point in a moment. I shall deal with the amendments made in another place as I deal with each of the issues in the Bill.

The Bill has three main themes—competitive markets that will deliver for consumers, renewable energy and nuclear clean-up—and I shall deal with each in turn.

Norman Baker (Lewes) (LD): The Secretary of State did not mention energy efficiency, which as she knows can play a major part in tackling climate change. Why is energy efficiency not a central part of the Bill, and why was the Government's target sunk last week?

Ms Hewitt: Both my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and I are acting to ensure that we achieve the substantial
 
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improvements in energy efficiency that are necessary, and which we set out in the energy White Paper. My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister, in his review of building regulations, is considering what more needs to be done to raise standards of energy efficiency in homes and offices.

The first central issue in the Bill is competitive markets, and how they will deliver for consumers. Security of supply is a major concern for domestic consumers, for business and for Government. The current law places obligations relating to security of supply on me, as Secretary of State, and on Ofgem as the independent regulator. As hon. Members would expect, those duties are taken extremely seriously.

I believe that the existing regulatory framework is best placed to deliver security of supply—a properly functioning market framework rather than command and control, or intervention by the Government.

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