121

House of Commons

Tuesday 4th March 2008

Public Bill Committee

New Amendments handed in are marked thus

Other Amendments not tabled within the required notice period are marked thus

Energy Bill

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Note

The Amendments have been arranged in accordance with the Order of the

Committee [5th February 2008].

Clause 41

Question proposed, that the Clause, as amended, stand part of the Bill.

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

31

Clause  42,  page  38,  line  7,  at end insert—

‘(d)	Nuclear Decommissioning Authority,

(e)	relevent local authority.’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

41

Clause  42,  page  38,  line  7,  at end insert—

‘(d)	the Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB).’.

Public Bill Committee: 4th March 2008

122

Energy Bill, continued

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

32

Clause  42,  page  38,  line  14,  at end insert—

‘(d)	relevant local authority.’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

45

Clause  42,  page  38,  line  21,  at end add—

‘(11)

The Secretary of State must not approve a funded decommissioning programme

if it includes any proposal to limit the liabilities of the operator, or a body

corporate associated with the person who submitted the programme, should cost

estimates change.’.

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

33

Clause  45,  page  39,  line  32,  at end insert—

‘(d)	relevant local authority.’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

42

Clause  46,  page  40,  line  13,  at end insert—

‘(d)	the Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB).’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

46

Clause  49,  page  42,  line  7,  after ‘may’, insert ‘at any time and at least once every

five years’.

Malcolm Wicks

27

Clause  49,  page  42,  line  18,  leave out ‘the Secretary of State determines’ and insert

‘the Secretary of State has reason to believe’.

Member’s explanatory statement

This amendment alters the threshold that the Secretary of State must meet in order to exercise his

powers to gather information for the purposes of making a decision as to whether or not to propose

a modification to a programme.

Public Bill Committee: 4th March 2008

123

Energy Bill, continued

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

34

Clause  50,  page  44,  line  10,  at end insert—

‘(d)	the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management,

(e)	the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority,

(f)	the relevant local authorities.’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

43

Clause  50,  page  44,  line  10,  at end insert—

‘(d)	the Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB).’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

40

Clause  51,  page  44,  line  29,  at end insert—

‘(3)	Regulations may establish a Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board

(NLFAB) to provide independent scrutiny and advice on the development,

approval, implementation, modification and maintenance of funded programmes

for the designated technical matters mentioned in section 41(5).

(4)	The NLFAB shall—

(a)	be appointed by the Secretary of State;

(b)	report to Parliament annually on the implementation of all funding of

designated technical matters as specified in approved funded

programmes;

(c)	review all programmes on a five year cycle, including coverage of all

designated technical matters specified in approved funded programmes,

estimates for costs for all matters under section 41(5) and of security

provided in connection with those costs;

(d)	give advice on alternative arrangements where designated technical

matters are not specified in an approved funded programme.’.

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

36

Clause  53,  page  45,  line  22,  after ‘indictment’, insert ‘in a case of dishonesty,’.

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

35

Clause  53,  page  45,  line  23,  leave out ‘2’ and insert ‘5’.

Public Bill Committee: 4th March 2008

124

Energy Bill, continued

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

37

Clause  56,  page  46,  line  38,  leave out ‘or misleading’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

44

Clause  59,  page  47,  line  30,  at end insert—

‘(d)	the Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB).’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

39

Clause  63,  page  50,  line  14,  at end insert—

‘“disposal” for solid nuclear wastes (including nuclear materials declared as

waste) means emplacement in a long term storage facility;’.

Malcolm Wicks

2

Clause  63,  page  50,  line  18,  at end insert ‘or Northern Ireland legislation’.

Member’s explanatory statement

This amendment ensures that for the purposes of interpretation for the nuclear waste and

decommissioning provisions in the Bill, where references are made to an enactment, Northern

Ireland legislation is included where appropriate and relevant.

Malcolm Wicks

3

Clause  65,  page  52,  line  36,  at end insert—

‘(5)	In subsection (4) “enactment” includes an instrument made under an enactment.’.

Member’s explanatory statement

This amendment ensures that for the purposes of the provisions about financial security for

decommissioning of offshore renewables installations in the Bill, references to an enactment

include secondary legislation.

Malcolm Wicks

4

Clause  69,  page  57,  line  35,  at end insert ‘or Northern Ireland legislation’.

Member’s explanatory statement

This amendment ensures that for the purposes of the provisions about financial security for

decommissioning of oil and gas installations, where references are made to an enactment,

Public Bill Committee: 4th March 2008

125

Energy Bill, continued

Northern Ireland legislation is included where appropriate and relevant.

John Robertson

28

Clause  73,  page  62,  line  26,  leave out from ‘all’ to end of line 27 and insert

‘existing apparatus, works and associated services necessary for the existing and future

operation of such pipe-line or network of a similar nature with a third party.”’.

John Robertson

30

Clause  73,  page  62,  leave out lines 31 and 32 and insert—

‘(d)	separating, purifying, blending, odorising or compressing upstream gas

for the purpose of—’.

John Robertson

29

Clause  73,  page  63,  line  6,  leave out from ‘all’ to ‘and’ in line 7 and insert ‘existing

apparatus, works and associated services necessary for the existing and future operation

of such pipe-line or network of a similar nature with a third party”,’.

Steve Webb

Martin Horwood

22

Page  69,  line  10,  leave out Clause 78.

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

47

Clause  85,  page  75,  line  8,  at end add—

‘(3)	This section does not apply to electricity display devices.

(4)	In this section, “electricity display device” means a device that can be attached to

a meter board in order to provide information on the amount of electricity being

used.’.

Public Bill Committee: 4th March 2008

126

Energy Bill, continued

New Clauses

Smart meters

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

NC1

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State shall make regulations which require smart meters to be

installed for gas and electricity in all homes by the end of a specified period of ten

years from the date on which the regulations are made.

(2)	In this section a “smart meter” means a gas or electricity meter with two-way

communication capabilities including communication capability to a display

which illutstrates household usage and cost per unit consumed.

(3)	Regulations made under this section must be made within a period of 12 months

beginning on the date on which this Act is passed.’.

Information on ETS allocations

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

NC2

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	Companies involved in the generation of electricity must publish information in

their Annual Reports on the amount and value of any allocation they have

received from the EU ETS and the amount that has been paid for such an

allocation.

(2)	Companies failing to publish the information required under subsection (1) shall

be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding

level 5 on the standard scale.’.

Repayment in cases of over-charging

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

NC3

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State shall by regulations make provision about the repayment

of sums by energy suppliers following over-charging of consumers.

(2)	Regulations under subsection (1) may, in particular—

(a)	make provision about the circumstances in which energy suppliers are

required to make repayments and the time limits for such repayments;

Public Bill Committee: 4th March 2008

127

Energy Bill, continued

(b)	provide for the Authority to determine charges to be made on energy

companies which fail to meet requirements relating to repayments.’.

Information on contributions towards environmental taxes

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

NC4

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State shall make regulations requiring energy utilities

companies to specify the proportion of those consumers’ energy bills that

contribute towards environmental taxes.

(2)	In this section “environmental taxes” means—

(a)	the Renewables Obligation Certificates,

(b)	charges resulting from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and

(c)	charges resulting from the Carbon Emissions Reduction Targets and

future additional environmental charges.’.

Annual report on gas storage

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

NC5

To move the following Clause:—

‘The Secretary of State shall, in each calendar year following that in which this

Act is passed, lay before Parliament a report on—

(a)	his assessment of the appropriate volume of onshore gas storage to ensure

long-term energy security, and

(b)	the progress that has been made towards reaching that target.’.

Feed-in tariffs

Charles Hendry

Mr John Baron

NC6

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision to introduce feed-in

tariffs for renewable micro-generation and decentralised energy.

(2)	In this section—

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Revised 4 March 2008