Browse content similar to 14/03/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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views on the monarch. It is a carefully drafted by the Honorable | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
member for the process and not substance I hope the colleagues will | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
frame their questions accordingly. Hear, hear! I seek not to embarrass | :00:07. | :00:12. | |
you in anyway Mr Speaker and asked that the Leader of the House will | :00:13. | :00:18. | |
make a statement on the endurance to the rules of the Privy Council in | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
light of the suspension of collective responsibility in | :00:24. | :00:24. | |
connection with the European Union referendum. Mr Speaker the Privy | :00:25. | :00:35. | |
Council surprise support to Her Majesty and the implementation of | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
the functions of the crown. The members of the Council also had | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
access to confidential national information and documentation waited | :00:44. | :00:50. | |
to do national security they swear an oath to maintain the | :00:51. | :00:57. | |
confidentiality of these briefings. None of that has changed because of | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
the current circumstances. Mr Speaker, last Wednesday the Sun | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
newspaper published a front-page story relating to the EU referendum | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
which it said was based on two impeccably placed sources. The | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
Minister will know that every minister and minister of the City | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
Council swears that solemn and binding oath to keep to the Queen | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
that they will in the words of the oath, keep secrets all matters | :01:24. | :01:30. | |
committed and revealed unto you. My Honorable friend has written to the | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
Minister asking for an investigation, please can you | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
confirm that that will take place? Please get he also confirmed that | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
the Privy Council rules have not been suspended as a result of the | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
referendum? Three members have categorically denied that they are | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
the source of the justice, that they are the source LAUGHTER Get the | :01:50. | :01:59. | |
Justice Secretary has only said that he does not know how the sun got its | :02:00. | :02:06. | |
information Mr Speaker the sovereigns constitutional | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
impartiality is a established principle of our democracy. It is on | :02:10. | :02:17. | |
does a political office to ensure this remains the case. Such a breach | :02:18. | :02:23. | |
would be significant. If the Justice Secretary would disclose this | :02:24. | :02:25. | |
information he would breach the principle of confidentiality and | :02:26. | :02:32. | |
evolve the monarch in a controversial manner. He will also | :02:33. | :02:35. | |
have undermined the role as the Minister for responsible from | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
holding the rule of law. Does the Minister therefore agree that the | :02:42. | :02:43. | |
public has a right to know whether or not whether the does Justice | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
Secretary was a source of this story. Please will he now urges | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
colleagues to confirm or deny such allegations. There is a referral to | :02:54. | :03:00. | |
investigate a complaint about the story but they cannot investigate | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
whether a privy counsellor has broken his oath, only that Minister | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
or Prime Minister can order that investigation. A cover-up will not | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
do. Surely any member of the Privy Council who was a source of the | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
story or whose special advisor or ally was standing contempt of his | :03:20. | :03:22. | |
Privy Council of and should be removed from office and he won't | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
honorably resigned himself. Hear, hear! Mr Speaker is the honourable | :03:28. | :03:36. | |
gentleman said his remarks last to get national newspaper published a | :03:37. | :03:39. | |
story ledge at the base of the conversation that took place at a | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
lunch following a Privy Council meeting. However my predecessor the | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
right honourable member from Sheffield Hallam said very clearly | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
that the story was categorically untrue. As the house is aware | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
Buckingham Palace has referred the matter to the press complaints body | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
and it is now investigating the story. Given all this I do not | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
believe that there is a need for further action here. Mr Speaker I | :04:07. | :04:15. | |
would like to agree with my right honourable friend of the proper way | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
to conduct this is as Her Majesty office has done. I don't see how | :04:22. | :04:27. | |
this house can investigate every newspaper story that upset some | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
people if neither the source of the newspaper chooses to reveal the | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
source. Of course the reality is that the last president said the | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
story is categorically untrue and this by definition must be something | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
for the body that investigates the media. Mr Speaker I am surprised the | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
Leader of the House does not want to carry out an inquiry and I will call | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
him to do so after all they will able to carry out a successful | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
inquiry in the Scotland offices. Will he reflect on the experiences | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
for that and also there seems to be not just this but it is agreement | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
and this is a question of fact between the Prime Minister and | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
Minister of Justice. Thus you picked up by ministers handling the | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
situation well? I do refer back to what I said a moment ago is that the | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
previous Lord President who attended this event has said it is untrue. It | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
is therefore a matter for the press complaints body and not anyone in | :05:33. | :05:39. | |
this House or the government. Does my right honourable friend agree | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
with me that what we are witnessing is a poorly disguised example of the | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
tendency of the party opposite to play the man and not the boy. With | :05:49. | :05:55. | |
the for the workings of the Privy Council are a matter for the Privy | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
Council and other symbols that apply to ministers in this house? My | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
Honorable friend is absolutely right and it is worth saying Mr Speaker, | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
that the conversation that is alleged to taking place did not take | :06:10. | :06:20. | |
place at a Privy Council meeting. Thank you Mr Speaker. With the | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
leader of the House agree with me that when it comes to serial | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
offenders one of the most effective forms of reparation for victims is | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
restorative justice. Where the offender apologises directly to the | :06:32. | :06:36. | |
victim. Does the later support the principles of restorative justice? I | :06:37. | :06:44. | |
also support the principle better people who are innocent and not | :06:45. | :06:53. | |
proven guilty. As the Lord high Chancellor is the keeper of the | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
Queen's conscience is not inconceivable that he could misapply | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
his conscience to Her Majesty and it is not further important and the | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
Privy Council of privy counsellors swear that they will do the other | :07:08. | :07:10. | |
most to bear faith and allegiance to the Queens Majesty and authority | :07:11. | :07:19. | |
granted to Her Majesty by the crowd and otherwise. A grants all foreign | :07:20. | :07:26. | |
princes persons and others. Howell, therefore could members of the Privy | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
Council go off and be European commissioners swearing allegiance to | :07:33. | :07:40. | |
the European Union? That is an interesting point. Someone say a | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
fastening point but it is mildly tangential to the urgent question I | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
have selected. Let's say rather apply. Mr Speaker think you would | :07:53. | :08:01. | |
agree with me that his makes his remarks in his customary way. | :08:02. | :08:12. | |
The former deputy prime ministers categorical denial that this | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
conversation took place so could this matter be to bed very simply | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
and straightforwardly if the Justice Secretary who was an honourable man, | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
would come to the housing categorically denied that | :08:26. | :08:27. | |
conversation ever took place himself? All I can repeat his | :08:28. | :08:36. | |
blessed earlier, which is that my predecessor said the story was | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
untrue. I don't think there is anything to answer for. The cabinet | :08:41. | :08:48. | |
offices established a revenue from gas referendum and can he say what | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
it does when it was established in how many civil servants are working | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
there. The short answer is no, not now. The right honourable gentleman | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
may be able to do so in the grocery private chat over the cup of tea or | :09:03. | :09:09. | |
a written question but today the focus of the narrow terms of the | :09:10. | :09:16. | |
question that has been granted. I thought it was an honour and a | :09:17. | :09:18. | |
privilege to be a member of the Privy Council. I take very seriously | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
and the trust that was placed in us. I think the allegations carry a | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
great deal of currency and if they are not properly investigated they | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
can undermine the whole of the Privy Council and on everybody in it. I | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
think the Prime Minister was right to say that it would be very serious | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
if a member of the Privy Council was the source of the sun's newspaper | :09:43. | :09:52. | |
story. Just to ask the member involved to come to this house and | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
to make a statement himself delay this matter to rest. I think all of | :09:58. | :10:04. | |
us who are members of the Council take that responsibility and | :10:05. | :10:06. | |
normalcy seriously and to us is a great honour to serve the crown in | :10:07. | :10:13. | |
this way. As of the predecessor of me was a law professor and a man who | :10:14. | :10:16. | |
takes responsibility very seriously has said it is untrue and therefore | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
there is nothing to answer for. It is quite right that Her Majesty, our | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
sovereign should have no views on important issues such as the EU | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
referendum. How can it be in any way acceptable for members of Her | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
Majesty's government for the Prime Minister downwards to encourage | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
foreign heads of state to comments on the EU referendum. Is this not | :10:43. | :10:49. | |
demonstrative that the fact that the international group is ganging up on | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
the British people. I would discourage any foreign leader from | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
entering the debate at the moment. This is a matter for the British | :10:58. | :11:05. | |
people and it should remain so. What discussions, if any has the Minister | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
had with the Prime Minister and the Justice Secretary about allegations | :11:12. | :11:13. | |
that the Justice Secretary may have been the source of the leaked | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
information said such allegations were made in the media? Says my | :11:18. | :11:24. | |
predecessor has said that the story is categorically untrue is actually | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
no need for me to have such conversations. I suppose one thing | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
we've learned today is that you should not believe everything you | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
read in newspapers. I'm learning more about the Council which I am | :11:38. | :11:47. | |
not a member of the Privy Council, does sticking very nearly to the | :11:48. | :11:56. | |
point, does the Privy Council rules extend to previous colonies which | :11:57. | :11:58. | |
might now have a president with Mike might want to come over here and | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
tell us how to vote in the EU referendum? Can I just say, I think | :12:04. | :12:11. | |
we know of whom the honourable gentleman speaks. He is the most | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
illustrious individual but not a member of the Privy Council. I think | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
we will leave it there because I think it was a rhetorical question. | :12:22. | :12:28. | |
The leader of the houses clinging to the defence that he has got today. | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
It is very clear the Honorable member was able to believe that he | :12:33. | :12:38. | |
was the source and in fact it is true. Does the Leader of the House | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
therefore not think that given the honourable member for Mid Sussex | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
visitors as would be a matter for treason. His rather flippant | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
approach for this massively undermines the importance of this | :12:53. | :12:59. | |
very important role. I'm not sure where he is coming from on this. You | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
cannot be found guilty of an offence when offence is not taken place. | :13:05. | :13:08. | |
That is the case for my predecessor had said that the story is | :13:09. | :13:11. | |
categorically untrue and that should be in into the matter. -- Ann and to | :13:12. | :13:25. | |
the matter. Someone else made a note of a recollection of their | :13:26. | :13:29. | |
conversation with their Majesty and taken it away perhaps or a book or | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
diaries as cortisol and at the end of their careers tend to want to do | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
then perhaps the number of people privy to the information might not | :13:41. | :13:47. | |
only be Privy Council? Of course lots of people talk to others about | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
lots of things but in this particular case, the president said | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
the story was untrue. That's conversation did not take place. | :13:56. | :14:07. | |
I've never been to this palace. I don't know LAUGHTER I don't know | :14:08. | :14:15. | |
what take place at the most bizarre thing for me, what on earth is the | :14:16. | :14:24. | |
queen doing confiding in Kent? LAUGHTER LAUGHTER I think the | :14:25. | :14:41. | |
response to the honourable gentleman's comments across the | :14:42. | :14:46. | |
House suggests that not everyone disagrees with the views put | :14:47. | :14:53. | |
forward. I hope before he ends his illustrious career he does have the | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
chance to go to the house. As palace. Will the members of the | :15:00. | :15:11. | |
Council ensure that the statistics that are usually published will be | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
published between now and the 23rd of June? I think we want to make | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
sure that everyone on both sides of this debate has all the facts they | :15:22. | :15:30. | |
need before the vote in June. The Prime Minister has described the | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
referendum vote as more important than a general election, then does | :15:35. | :15:42. | |
the Minister agree that the public confidence in his votes rely on both | :15:43. | :15:51. | |
sides behaving fairly? Administers on both sides of the argument making | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
the case clearly and still staying friends afterwards. Am I right | :15:56. | :16:02. | |
honourable friend sitting alongside me demonstrating that we are uniting | :16:03. | :16:09. | |
in doing the right thing for this country. Without invoking the body | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
of the sovereign and asked the government when they plan to | :16:16. | :16:18. | |
introduce a British sovereignty bill? Will soon be having a | :16:19. | :16:27. | |
visitation for the queen into this palace flicked her speech. We will | :16:28. | :16:33. | |
see what her plans are for the years ahead. The honourable gentleman is | :16:34. | :16:45. | |
unfailingly courteous, but his question was a bit wide of the mark. | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
There are people who are still try to catch my eye. It would be good if | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
everyone can remain in order, but perhaps by Mr Stephen Powell. This | :16:56. | :17:06. | |
whole business music pretty nasties stands in the nostrils. It is | :17:07. | :17:18. | |
emerging that people are picking up scraps of rumour and parlaying that | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
into a book later on in their careers. As one who was Sunday | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
morning fry up was ruined when I turned to my copy of the Mail on | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
Sunday to read the memoirs of Mr laws were the honourable gentleman | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
not agree with me that we should actually impose a self-denying | :17:37. | :17:42. | |
ordinance and stop writing these dreadful scandalous books, seeking | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
to expose what is confidential. May I say that I have no intention of | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
doing so. Not sure that a self-denying ordinance can be | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
imposed. LAUGHTER Those who have consulted their craniums advise me | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
that that might not be possible and indeed it might. Either the | :18:07. | :18:14. | |
contradiction or even the tautology. We will see how robust the | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
honourable gentleman determination to stay out of the world of diary | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
and book writing when he concludes his illustrious career when he | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
receives a lavish offer from a publisher. An interrogation into | :18:28. | :18:37. | |
recent select committee raised to other possible breaches of this kind | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
involving Her Majesty and Prince William. It is noticed that this | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
carefully crafted answer said he did not know where the Queen gets or -- | :18:49. | :18:58. | |
all her information. As we are not being told that the justice | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
minister, can we take it that this is an attempt to do with those do | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
and achieve destruction and revolution of the monarchy? I have | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
to say if we are talking about revolution by destruction, they | :19:16. | :19:23. | |
currently take the biscuits. I have you were not deemed my question to | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
be tangential, clearly the government have a strong views on | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
this matter. We are witnessing varied opinions on the government | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
benches. And the interest of future reference I wonder if the Leader of | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
the House might consider drawing up a list of approved contributors to | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
the debates. They'll be very handy for future reference for the | :19:47. | :19:54. | |
Scottish national party. We are having a debate where everybody's | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
views are being put forward and I will be carried on for another three | :19:59. | :20:06. | |
months. I'm racking my brain were an occasion with the leader of the | :20:07. | :20:12. | |
House agreed to so readily with the other member, surely he must accept | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
that is the failure of the Justice Secretary to be quickly states that | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
he had nothing to do with this is the reason he sitting there | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
answering his urgent question now. Shouldn't his right honourable | :20:25. | :20:27. | |
friend either make such a statement or resign? So he is asking at the | :20:28. | :20:35. | |
Justice Secretary says it didn't happen that didn't happen that just | :20:36. | :20:46. | |
does not make sense. Millions of working people in this country know | :20:47. | :20:48. | |
that when an allegation of gross this conduct comes to an employee | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
public attention and is expected that in the investigation will | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
follow. To do nothing creates a president that others may rely and | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
in the future. Allegations are made. Does the leader of the House agreed | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
that failure to even investigate shows a lack of courage and creates | :21:06. | :21:14. | |
an unwelcome precedents. Normally investigations are not launched into | :21:15. | :21:17. | |
unsubstantiated stories. I simply say again that my predecessor said | :21:18. | :21:26. | |
the story is categorically untrue. I disappointed to hear that the | :21:27. | :21:29. | |
response of the Leader of the House, because Buckingham Palace have | :21:30. | :21:36. | |
deemed concerned by the story. There are two impeccable sources so why is | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
the government also taking it seriously by holding an | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
investigation? If I understand correctly Buckingham Palace has | :21:47. | :21:48. | |
complained about the story in the newspaper, any or body to | :21:49. | :21:54. | |
investigate that is the price investigators. Best price. -- press. | :21:55. | :22:09. | |
And if so why isn't he not wanting his own investigation? Is understood | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
correctly the serious issue is what the story in the newspaper which is | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
being investigated, but we have said it is categorically untrue. | :22:22. | :22:30. | |
Yesterday the telegraph reported that the sources is a stackable | :22:31. | :22:45. | |
offence. Can he... Yes. Before we proceed further, misses and Maine. | :22:46. | :22:56. | |
If you publish any contingency plans for a department in trade agreements | :22:57. | :23:03. | |
in event of the UK exit from the EU. In December European Council they | :23:04. | :23:10. | |
gave the United Kingdom and social status. ... Is that the UK will be | :23:11. | :23:18. | |
stronger, and better and reform to you. That is not answer the question | :23:19. | :23:28. | |
and I believe agreed that it was prominently that questions must be | :23:29. | :23:34. | |
given a standard answer. Can I get an answer to that particular | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
question? As the Honorable Lady knows the chair is not was also full | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
for the content of answers. There is a general presumption in favour of | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
answers to questions that are both timely and substantive. If however | :23:50. | :23:56. | |
the honourable lady is dissatisfied with the substance of the reply | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
which she believes fails adequately to respond or to respond at all to | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
her requiring she has to recourse is open to her neither of which | :24:07. | :24:13. | |
involves the chair. One is to table further questions with that dogged | :24:14. | :24:16. | |
persistence for which the honourable member has become world sound of the | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
last nearly 11 years in the house, and the other course of action open | :24:22. | :24:28. | |
to her is to complain to the chair of the procedure committee, the | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
honourable gentleman with a view into securing an inquiry of Bush by | :24:34. | :24:40. | |
ministers to providing answers to biometric questions. I hope that | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
constitutes an adequate answer to the honourable lady who has aired | :24:45. | :24:47. | |
her concern for today. There are no further points of order we come now | :24:48. | :24:55. | |
to the main business. In the first instance to the programme motion, | :24:56. | :25:03. | |
the Minister to move, thank you. The question is the energy bill as on | :25:04. | :25:11. | |
the order paper. Though the honourable gentleman wish to | :25:12. | :25:22. | |
contribute? No, very good. ... I think the eyes have it. As I inform | :25:23. | :25:30. | |
the House on Monday the 26th of October if over sport begins on the | :25:31. | :25:36. | |
bill I will seek to identify those changes made a committee which I | :25:37. | :25:40. | |
would expect to certify together with the government amendments | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
tabled which if passed would be likely to lead me to issue a | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
certificate. My provisional certificate based on those changes | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
and expected amendments is available in the vote office and on the bills | :25:56. | :26:04. | |
before Parliament was site. I'm required to consider the bill as | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
amended on the report for certification. At that point but | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
today I will issue my final certificate. But Clark will now | :26:13. | :26:17. | |
proceed to read the orders of the day. As of amendments in the public | :26:18. | :26:26. | |
bill considered. We begin with new clause two was put be convenient to | :26:27. | :26:35. | |
consider government to 50 and the other amendments listed on the other | :26:36. | :26:37. | |
amendments listed on reflection paper. To move new cause to I call | :26:38. | :26:46. | |
Mr Callum McCaig. It is a straightforward one, it is to read | :26:47. | :26:53. | |
evolve and empower the closer order for onshore wind back to the | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
Scottish Government. Where had belonged. That's power was | :26:57. | :27:05. | |
re-reserved so to speak on the explicit understanding that there | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
would be no changes to the closure and no material impact to Scotland | :27:11. | :27:17. | |
from agreeing to that proposal. The proposal had intended at the time to | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
rely for proposer for later next year. As had previously been agreed. | :27:23. | :27:28. | |
For the renewables obligation. There has been extensive debate about | :27:29. | :27:35. | |
renewables obligation. I think it is worth reiterating just briefly some | :27:36. | :27:39. | |
of those concerns. As I said, this was removed from Scotland against | :27:40. | :27:48. | |
the explicit undertaking they the government have given to Scottish | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
ministers, I think there is an element of trust and betrayal of | :27:54. | :27:57. | |
trust that is coming to this agreement. That is something that | :27:58. | :28:01. | |
has woven its way through the entirety of the government's in | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
handling of onshore wind and the closure of renewables obligation. | :28:08. | :28:10. | |
The industry had for a long time period of trust and the government. | :28:11. | :28:18. | |
That trust had vanished. It is the opportunity from today public | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
debates most notably from the numerous ones in my honourable | :28:24. | :28:30. | |
friend, the Member for... Who has meticulously detailed the closure | :28:31. | :28:40. | |
TRO and could be dealt with in the fairest manner. Last week the energy | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
and climate change select committee produced a report on investor | :28:47. | :28:51. | |
confidence. Seven and numerous policy announcements have marred the | :28:52. | :28:57. | |
reputation. I think that is fairly damning. I'm not steeped in the ways | :28:58. | :29:03. | |
of select committee reports and how they finance their arguments about | :29:04. | :29:09. | |
that but that is a clear criticism of the government policy and how is | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
been implemented. It did not need to be done that way. I think we have | :29:14. | :29:20. | |
accepted through the process at the energy bill committees the various | :29:21. | :29:23. | |
stages of this bill that the government does indeed have a | :29:24. | :29:28. | |
commitment to pursue this policy. We disagree with that, and I think it | :29:29. | :29:31. | |
is as short-sighted and is not the correct way of going about things. | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
Onshore wind in the view of myself and my party has a significant role | :29:36. | :29:45. | |
to play to play the United Kingdom. It should not be had taken out what | :29:46. | :29:53. | |
is effectively a rather crude... The government has chosen to act in that | :29:54. | :30:01. | |
way. To look at this, and to accept what is happening in the government | :30:02. | :30:06. | |
is doing this it should do it in the best way possible. I feel there's | :30:07. | :30:10. | |
something else happening I'm not aware about. Very disorderly | :30:11. | :30:15. | |
conduct. The honourable gentleman is missing a serious case and if I may | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
be meant to say this, whatever is the subject of this debate, | :30:21. | :30:26. | |
fortunately at least for him, Otis is not. | :30:27. | :30:33. | |
I don't do quite caught that Mr Speaker. Gentleman he doesn't need | :30:34. | :30:42. | |
to do so. The honourable gentleman is innocent. He has been | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
transgressed against. He is not transgress. He can now speed ahead | :30:47. | :30:52. | |
to which we look forward. LAUGHTER. Speed being the operative word there | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
Mr Speaker. So in terms of this. We have a call for the read evolution | :30:58. | :31:00. | |
of this. We have a call for the grace period to be dealt with in the | :31:01. | :31:05. | |
most appropriate manner. The conservative manifesto and the party | :31:06. | :31:11. | |
debate has expressed a desire to see local control. I don't think anyone | :31:12. | :31:17. | |
can have a huge argument about that. To do that it requires respecting of | :31:18. | :31:23. | |
local decisions. As they stand, the grace periods to not do that. | :31:24. | :31:27. | |
Without the amendments that I think are required in particularly | :31:28. | :31:32. | |
amendment eight, we are planning decisions committee were dealt with | :31:33. | :31:37. | |
prior to the closure date of the approval of the certificate was not | :31:38. | :31:44. | |
granted, due to section 75. Essentially I think it's such a one | :31:45. | :31:51. | |
of six in England. That is a clear sense. That is local | :31:52. | :31:54. | |
decision-making. That should Mr Speaker have the consent of this | :31:55. | :31:59. | |
government and be allowed to be included in the energy bill. We | :32:00. | :32:04. | |
accept that this is going to happen and needs to happen. Now at this | :32:05. | :32:08. | |
stage having been explicitly opposed to it, the industry sees it is | :32:09. | :32:12. | |
better to have some certainty, rather than to continue with | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
uncertainty. Uncertainty needs to be correct and fair. It needs to be | :32:19. | :32:21. | |
certainty that does what is it intended to do. If we are to respect | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
local decision-making, when locally elected bodies either in England and | :32:26. | :32:34. | |
Scotland, all welds are under different stipulations, have agreed | :32:35. | :32:41. | |
to this. The cause of the technical decision-making and on other such | :32:42. | :32:44. | |
issues have not been able to get their certificate. That is simply | :32:45. | :32:54. | |
wrong. Can he does remind the House why he wishes to burden his | :32:55. | :32:58. | |
constituency and others with this issue, from an end to a noble souls | :32:59. | :33:09. | |
cannot rely on. I think it has been clearly been demonstrated as one of | :33:10. | :33:12. | |
the cheapest forms of renewable energy. I would ask him why he | :33:13. | :33:20. | |
supports this insane waste of money? It is in considerably in excess. Mr | :33:21. | :33:29. | |
Speaker Ayatollah perhaps resist the temptation to ask. This is | :33:30. | :33:31. | |
straightforward. We need to press ahead with an certainty doesn't need | :33:32. | :33:38. | |
to be given. That has been handled incredibly badly. There is time, | :33:39. | :33:43. | |
particularly with the ECC report last week, for the government to | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
make amends to change some of the stipulations round about the grace | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
periods. They can allow this to happen in the best way possible. | :33:53. | :33:57. | |
Late is better than never. Hear, hear! . The honourable gentleman is | :33:58. | :34:10. | |
not giving way but has concluded his remarks. Therefore... The question | :34:11. | :34:21. | |
is that the New Clause to be read a second time. No. I think it will | :34:22. | :34:33. | |
take Mr Chris Harrison then come to the honourable gentleman. Thank you | :34:34. | :34:36. | |
Mr Speaker and thank you for calling me early on in this debate. I sat on | :34:37. | :34:42. | |
the energy bill committee, along with many of the Honorable members | :34:43. | :34:50. | |
here today and just wanted to add a bit of balance to the Scottish | :34:51. | :34:57. | |
national party contribution. I... We had this debate in the committee in | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
the Scottish national party would like to see the document sent back | :35:03. | :35:08. | |
to Scotland and many people would like to see the Scottish commit to | :35:09. | :35:14. | |
paying for that renewable obligation as well. There is only half of that | :35:15. | :35:20. | |
in this particular amendment. I'm happy to give way. I think of. He's | :35:21. | :35:30. | |
absolutely right in that regard. Would he accept that we would be | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
paying the extortionate price for his parties nuclear power, if he | :35:35. | :35:41. | |
gets his ways? If we are talking about paying for these, I wonder how | :35:42. | :35:46. | |
the S would have paid for their proposals, had they gone independent | :35:47. | :35:53. | |
on a crisis... Let's just make sure that we talk about energy in a | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
sensible way. Actually we did have a very constructive and sensible | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
debate, in the committee stages. It is good fun to follow up | :36:02. | :36:08. | |
occasionally on different points. Mr Speaker I also, and unfortunately | :36:09. | :36:11. | |
you did not choose any of the amendments that I put my name to | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
today. I was not being cheeky in tabling them. I just wanted to make | :36:17. | :36:24. | |
a point. With in this bill, we have the friend removal from the | :36:25. | :36:32. | |
Conservative Party about removing the renewable obligations earlier, | :36:33. | :36:40. | |
and also some planning changes. We were having a debate committee about | :36:41. | :36:51. | |
how and if let's say members of the House of Lords decided that they did | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
not like what we were doing to the bill down here, by putting back in | :36:56. | :36:59. | |
what wasn't clear manifesto commitment from the Conservative | :37:00. | :37:02. | |
Party, how actually that would be quite a foolish thing to do. There | :37:03. | :37:08. | |
are other methods by which that are within the planning rules that we | :37:09. | :37:13. | |
could go by. I think would be fair to talk about amplitude modulation | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
as a planning requirement. There is a huge amount of concern about the | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
noise from wind turbines. I thought I would identify a couple of those | :37:25. | :37:29. | |
concerns today in a bit more detail, so members could understand where I | :37:30. | :37:35. | |
was coming from. Now I'm happy to give way. I would just say to My | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
Noble friend who has a great deal of knowledge and expertise in these | :37:41. | :37:44. | |
issues, that it was a very unfortunate precedents set by the | :37:45. | :37:51. | |
other that they should disregard the convention. They should consider it | :37:52. | :37:55. | |
appropriate that they decide that the British public were wrong in | :37:56. | :37:59. | |
reelecting the government on an manifesto commitment, to undertake | :38:00. | :38:05. | |
the proposals that my Honorable friend has brought. I thank my | :38:06. | :38:08. | |
Honorable friend for the intervention. Actually at the other | :38:09. | :38:12. | |
end of this building, that there has been some sensible debate around | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
this. There are a number from Labour and other peers that do understand | :38:18. | :38:22. | |
his point. However it would be foolish for a Coalition partner to | :38:23. | :38:29. | |
have very few MPs in this place, but you have a way to many peers in | :38:30. | :38:34. | |
another place, to use that bulk of unelected opinion to force down a | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
government manifesto commitment will stop there are many ways to get | :38:40. | :38:42. | |
around this particular problem. I want to identify a plan where we can | :38:43. | :38:49. | |
solve possibly, definitely a good thing to do for communities | :38:50. | :38:56. | |
affected, but actually maybe not the peers at the other end of this | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
building would like to go down. Maybe they should think very | :39:02. | :39:07. | |
sensibly about how they use is still going for, just in case. Mr Speaker | :39:08. | :39:16. | |
a couple years ago, I get a freedom information requested every planning | :39:17. | :39:19. | |
authority across England. I wanted to see if any of them had actually | :39:20. | :39:25. | |
experienced or had knowledge of a concern of an element within noise | :39:26. | :39:30. | |
and wind called amplitude modulation. It's expired of low | :39:31. | :39:39. | |
whooshing sound. I asked every EH bowl across the country whether they | :39:40. | :39:44. | |
had an experience with this. A large number came back, especially from | :39:45. | :39:48. | |
rural areas, where there's lots of wind from turbines. They said they | :39:49. | :39:52. | |
had guessed some experience with it. The current government guidelines on | :39:53. | :39:58. | |
this matter did not cover amplitude modulation. There was actually | :39:59. | :40:03. | |
nothing they could do. They did not have much information from the | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
government. In fact the wind industry and the department itself | :40:08. | :40:11. | |
did not recognise the amplitude modulation existed until only a | :40:12. | :40:17. | |
couple years ago. That was quite resolved considering that this was | :40:18. | :40:20. | |
well recognised across the world at that point in time. Unfortunately or | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
fortunately as I presented my findings to that department. They | :40:26. | :40:32. | |
came up with the idea that amplitude modulation noise reduced by turbines | :40:33. | :40:39. | |
can be a concern for residents. The Sultan should be bought in to review | :40:40. | :40:42. | |
the amplitude modulation and decide how excessive this might be | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
controlled through a planning condition. The study that I held | :40:48. | :40:54. | |
commission, which was a study into what causes amplitude modulation and | :40:55. | :41:01. | |
how it can be tempered, the eye in WG study will be considered | :41:02. | :41:03. | |
alongside other evidence that has been gathered as part of this | :41:04. | :41:08. | |
review. The evidence that I presented was actually that there | :41:09. | :41:11. | |
are lots of communities up and down this country and lots of | :41:12. | :41:15. | |
individuals, living in houses close to turbines that are directly | :41:16. | :41:20. | |
affected by excessive amplitude modulation. In fact this is a very | :41:21. | :41:24. | |
significant factor in peoples lives. Noise complaints from wind farms | :41:25. | :41:33. | |
around the whooshing noise... It means that some people in many cases | :41:34. | :41:37. | |
cannot sleep in their own house. Some people find this a great deal | :41:38. | :41:44. | |
of stress. The want or wish or BD noise. You can experience it when | :41:45. | :41:49. | |
you're standing close to helicopters and other turbines blades turning. | :41:50. | :41:57. | |
It's the most intrusive element of noise around when Todd Burns. The | :41:58. | :42:05. | |
Scots are at the forefront of everything to do with noise. But I | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
will leave it as onshore wind turbine knowledge and found that | :42:11. | :42:17. | |
between one to do: as from a Win form, 70% of people, suffering | :42:18. | :42:23. | |
audible noise, strongly dislike the noise and that a vast number of | :42:24. | :42:30. | |
those were actually suffering from the effects of excessive amplitude | :42:31. | :42:34. | |
modulation. This noise is actually not covered by the noise guidelines | :42:35. | :42:42. | |
that we currently have. I'm happy to give way. Would you agree with me | :42:43. | :42:49. | |
that in my experience, this issue that he rightly raises, is | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
compounded by the complementary problem of shadow flickering, which | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
is causing distraction for many people within the environments of | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
onshore wind infrastructure and also of course the movement of very large | :43:03. | :43:09. | |
plant machinery on roads. This can also have an impact on the quality | :43:10. | :43:12. | |
of life of the people adjacent to these facilities. . To very valid | :43:13. | :43:22. | |
points. I have myself seen the Flickr and only stood there for a | :43:23. | :43:25. | |
period of ten minutes. I can actually understand if that was | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
Ashley affecting your house or your place of work, how interesting that | :43:30. | :43:37. | |
could be. I'm sure many of my envelope members would have the | :43:38. | :43:40. | |
means turbines when they are moving through small villages. You can | :43:41. | :43:46. | |
sometimes not get the turbines through on small roads. A number of | :43:47. | :43:51. | |
people visited me today, this morning, from the lovely village of | :43:52. | :43:56. | |
Goldsboro, where a nearby wind turbine and inform would present a | :43:57. | :44:02. | |
gap of inches between houses on each side of the road, and the turbine | :44:03. | :44:05. | |
shaft being driven through this particular village is an issue. Yes | :44:06. | :44:11. | |
they do cause concern. But there are more than the travel movement is a | :44:12. | :44:17. | |
concern. I would argue that amplitude modulation is a bigger | :44:18. | :44:20. | |
issue than Flickr. I'll happily give way. Will he share my concerns that | :44:21. | :44:30. | |
conscious patient of policy on strategic zones and where all the | :44:31. | :44:38. | |
developments are put into those zones and there are different | :44:39. | :44:41. | |
projects and there's a difference between force and wind noise levels | :44:42. | :44:49. | |
but that as far as the planning regime is concerned, when a small | :44:50. | :44:55. | |
development, the issues of noise comes up? That is a very wise point. | :44:56. | :45:06. | |
Just a very briefly TV Honorable gentleman, you can monitor this | :45:07. | :45:10. | |
particular noise. You can also predict when it might occur. | :45:11. | :45:14. | |
Therefore you can as has been done, and a couple of places in England, | :45:15. | :45:19. | |
when you get those circumstances happening where I modulation is | :45:20. | :45:25. | |
causing distress to nearby residents and is being monitored with the | :45:26. | :45:30. | |
agreement with the developer of the wind form, you can stop the turbines | :45:31. | :45:33. | |
from turning for that period of time. It does not mean the noise | :45:34. | :45:40. | |
stops and everyone goes about their business happily. I know that some | :45:41. | :45:44. | |
of the proposals that are then in wells have been absolutely massive. | :45:45. | :45:48. | |
I have been working with the Honorable member very hard with him | :45:49. | :45:56. | |
on this and some absolutely amazingly large proposals in his | :45:57. | :45:58. | |
constituency. I know this is a real concern for many people across | :45:59. | :46:05. | |
Wales. As I was saying the current guidelines don't actually monitoring | :46:06. | :46:09. | |
-- monitor amplitude modulation at all. In fact this noise falls | :46:10. | :46:16. | |
outside of monitoring. There is only one wind form that I know of, at | :46:17. | :46:22. | |
where the planning decision the united kingdom, were planning | :46:23. | :46:25. | |
conditions have been proposed for amplitude modulation noise. That was | :46:26. | :46:32. | |
an development in den endeavour. In my concern is has been actually a | :46:33. | :46:36. | |
very long time or decades where everyone has known about this | :46:37. | :46:38. | |
particular issue, but no one has really spoken about it. We get the | :46:39. | :46:44. | |
green light to this particular industry, and I spoke in this place | :46:45. | :46:48. | |
previously about how some of the developers have not been | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
particularly client to villages and constituents of mind when coming | :46:55. | :46:56. | |
forward with development. They knew everything was stacked on their | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
side. My argument as I made to the right Honorable Lady previously, was | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
that the developers could have done a lot better in the past and maybe | :47:05. | :47:07. | |
there would not be this problem that we currently have. Had there been a | :47:08. | :47:13. | |
recognition that local peoples views on these matters should actually | :47:14. | :47:20. | |
carry a great deal of weight. But for decades that did not happen. The | :47:21. | :47:24. | |
wind industry is consistently denied the existence of excessive amplitude | :47:25. | :47:31. | |
modulation. Even though I can point you to experts who will demonstrate | :47:32. | :47:39. | |
to you, this is, amplitude modulation is a frequent occurrence | :47:40. | :47:43. | |
potentially affecting all industrial large wind turbines, often for large | :47:44. | :47:46. | |
periods of time and more frequently than not in the night-time. I can | :47:47. | :47:54. | |
point actually to the survey of environmental health officers and | :47:55. | :47:55. | |
planning authorities that I did myself. Who all or a large number of | :47:56. | :48:03. | |
whom pointed to the fact that they need this thing or something of that | :48:04. | :48:11. | |
ilk was happening but they had no powers to deal with it or nor did | :48:12. | :48:14. | |
they actually have the correct guidance from government to point | :48:15. | :48:20. | |
them into the right direction. While there are people who do complain | :48:21. | :48:25. | |
about amplitude modulation to members of parliament and local | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
planning authorities, actually I think there is a hidden file | :48:30. | :48:32. | |
majority out there. There are people who are willing to suffer in the in | :48:33. | :48:40. | |
silence of this noise because if they do get involved they fear if | :48:41. | :48:50. | |
they had to disclose this when they sold the House it would be an issue. | :48:51. | :49:01. | |
I think actually the existing legal remedies for... There are remedies | :49:02. | :49:06. | |
for residents affected by turbulent noise. It is not fit for the purpose | :49:07. | :49:11. | |
and certainly not fit for measuring amplitude modulation. Evidence | :49:12. | :49:19. | |
however suggest that an abatement notice has not been effective | :49:20. | :49:23. | |
control to protecting nearby residents from excessive amplitude | :49:24. | :49:30. | |
modulation. Others such as private nuisance and similar legal actions | :49:31. | :49:33. | |
have been considered the place to much risk and burden on residents | :49:34. | :49:39. | |
for a problem not of their making, with likely long-term adverse | :49:40. | :49:42. | |
financial implications. In addition there has been a recent trend of | :49:43. | :49:47. | |
secondary operators forming individual shell companies for each | :49:48. | :49:51. | |
wind form. The impact of this was highlighted in July 2015, when my | :49:52. | :49:58. | |
right honourable friend house and introduce the bill into Parliament. | :49:59. | :50:03. | |
With the purpose of acquiring were informed of elements to require | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
public liability insurance for any noise. This was for any noise | :50:09. | :50:17. | |
nuisance. One of his constituents had a problem with the local wind | :50:18. | :50:20. | |
farm but found it impossible to sue. It was clearly a shell company with | :50:21. | :50:26. | |
very limited assets. More concerning about amplitude modulation, is this | :50:27. | :50:32. | |
affects on health. I have read studies that demonstrate quite | :50:33. | :50:36. | |
adequately that wind turbine noise adversely affects sleep and health. | :50:37. | :50:41. | |
This is clear from the evidence examined by a world-renowned expert, | :50:42. | :50:46. | |
who are asked to help me on this, Chris Harrington. He worked with a | :50:47. | :50:53. | |
group that I put together. Wind turbine noise affects sleep and | :50:54. | :50:56. | |
health adversely. Noise levels committed by the current noise | :50:57. | :51:06. | |
regulation... There is no evidence that wind turbine noise is safe. In | :51:07. | :51:11. | |
contrast there are increasing volumes of evidence that outlined | :51:12. | :51:15. | |
the country. There is a list particular concern to the health of | :51:16. | :51:19. | |
children exposed to wind turbine noise. The inadequate consideration | :51:20. | :51:24. | |
of the amplitude modulation isn't large factor in why I believed it to | :51:25. | :51:30. | |
fails to detect the majority of people who live near wind turbines | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
and need this to be reformed. The denial of the wind industry is | :51:35. | :51:38. | |
reminiscent of other health issues in the past. I do believe this could | :51:39. | :51:43. | |
be a very big public health issue going forward. As I can tan. The | :51:44. | :51:48. | |
current noise standard is not fit for purpose. I have plenty of | :51:49. | :51:55. | |
evidence to suggest that it's about -- methodology is completely | :51:56. | :52:03. | |
incorrect. I don't really have to go into the evidence because I have | :52:04. | :52:06. | |
been fortunate enough to be supported by the findings of a | :52:07. | :52:09. | |
recent assembly report in January 20 15. This report recommended a review | :52:10. | :52:19. | |
of the use of the exit 97 guidelines and with a view of adopted and more | :52:20. | :52:25. | |
robust guidelines, with particular reference to current guidelines from | :52:26. | :52:30. | |
the World Health Organization. So I contend that we need an effective | :52:31. | :52:35. | |
planning conditions, for amplitude modulation. The wind industry claims | :52:36. | :52:41. | |
that the amplitude modulation planning is not necessary and that | :52:42. | :52:47. | |
the nuisance provides adequate protection. This is discredited by | :52:48. | :52:52. | |
the evidence that I have seen and published on my website. Without a | :52:53. | :52:55. | |
planning condition, there is no effective remedy to wind farm | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
labourers, who suffer from excessive noise. The relevance of amplitude | :53:00. | :53:06. | |
modulation causing noise complaints has driven the wind industry to | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
ensure that a planning condition of this type is not applied a standard | :53:12. | :53:15. | |
planning practice. This is why I wanted to raise it today. We are | :53:16. | :53:22. | |
having this conversation about renewables obligation certificates | :53:23. | :53:25. | |
and the planning guidance that goes alongside as part of a manifesto | :53:26. | :53:35. | |
commitment. I'm happy to give away. Does he agree with me that the | :53:36. | :53:39. | |
decision as to whether the product -- project go-ahead should sit with | :53:40. | :53:43. | |
the local people and that when the local people have agreed on this? I | :53:44. | :53:49. | |
thank the Honorable gentleman for his point. I have a long contended | :53:50. | :53:54. | |
and said in every speech that I have given the wind in this place, that | :53:55. | :54:00. | |
actually is local people want to have a web form, who is the local MP | :54:01. | :54:05. | |
or any politician to get in their way? I wanted to be subsidy free. I | :54:06. | :54:09. | |
want them to benefit from it. But they believe is a benefit to the | :54:10. | :54:15. | |
local community, that I have no issue with that. I do think people | :54:16. | :54:22. | |
should be aware of the potential health concerns around noise and | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
amplitude modulation. I do think we have the opportunity here to ensure | :54:28. | :54:30. | |
that any of those concerns can be mitigated. The local community in | :54:31. | :54:37. | |
the future steps forward and says yes we desperately would love to | :54:38. | :54:43. | |
have 100 wind turbines surround our village, devalue our houses, and | :54:44. | :54:48. | |
hide us from our rural hinterland, they can do so knowing that if | :54:49. | :54:57. | |
amplitude modulation was to happen, then actually they would be able to | :54:58. | :55:03. | |
have turbines that are producing the amplitude modulation were turned | :55:04. | :55:07. | |
off, so at least they could sleep. I wondered if he is aware of Professor | :55:08. | :55:13. | |
Peter Stiles, who published a study on vibrations from wind turbines in | :55:14. | :55:20. | |
Scotland? He says when the wind form starts to generate even a low wind | :55:21. | :55:27. | |
speed sounds can be detected at stations out about ten km. Now some | :55:28. | :55:33. | |
developers are proposing to install bigger turbines. So the older | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
studies show that these were safe for the purposes of noise, are now | :55:39. | :55:46. | |
out of date. And that now turbines are up to 100 metres high and | :55:47. | :55:52. | |
causing more problems? I am very aware that study and I obviously | :55:53. | :55:55. | |
agree with what the gentleman found. The interesting thing here is that | :55:56. | :56:00. | |
as those turbines get longer -- a larger, it generates a slightly | :56:01. | :56:06. | |
larger area and some of the turbines that we are now considering putting | :56:07. | :56:12. | |
out, we have gone past the 18 metre stage, in my constituency, you will | :56:13. | :56:17. | |
find dozens and dozens of wind turbines over 126 metres high. That | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
is about the size of the one London eye. If you consider the blades | :56:23. | :56:25. | |
moving around that, the way they top the wind, it does create this thing | :56:26. | :56:30. | |
called amplitude modulation. My answer is yes. More and more people | :56:31. | :56:37. | |
now have an understanding that this is happening. We just need a | :56:38. | :56:40. | |
planning condition that is suitable and sensible to ensure that local | :56:41. | :56:45. | |
communities that are affected by this problem have a way of stopping | :56:46. | :56:49. | |
it from happening to them. This is why I wanted to talk about the | :56:50. | :56:56. | |
application of amplitude modulation planning conditions such as the one | :56:57. | :57:02. | |
in Denver and Devon. This came forward and 2009. It was fought | :57:03. | :57:05. | |
tooth and nail by the wind industry at that point in time. To them it | :57:06. | :57:11. | |
represented a serious risk to them because I planning condition of this | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
type added cost and actually made it slightly more difficult to get | :57:18. | :57:22. | |
turbines through planning and the first place. If there is a potential | :57:23. | :57:26. | |
hit a health risk to a big industrial turbine being placed in | :57:27. | :57:30. | |
the area, you might well Could he tell us with the fixes for | :57:31. | :57:38. | |
this and if there is a way for suppressing the noise that is | :57:39. | :57:43. | |
realistic? The best way of suppressing the noise is to turn the | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
turbine off for a period of time that it is working. When the noise | :57:48. | :57:55. | |
is likely to occur. As the accusations were demonstrated to me | :57:56. | :57:58. | |
this noise is more likely to occur at night, because other background | :57:59. | :58:04. | |
noises have dropped down. You can predict it because you know which | :58:05. | :58:07. | |
way the wind is blowing and what speed. It drops down to the ground | :58:08. | :58:14. | |
level and a certain way so you know exactly which houses and the zone | :58:15. | :58:20. | |
area that is going to affect. With sensible meteorological readings and | :58:21. | :58:25. | |
monitoring equipment which is now cheaper to purchase you can do a lot | :58:26. | :58:36. | |
better. Not me personally thank you, but so many residents of my | :58:37. | :58:39. | |
constituency. Everything you said is right. I find it staggering that | :58:40. | :58:46. | |
given the world of figuring -- physics it is amazing that | :58:47. | :58:49. | |
modulation is a surprise to us when it comes to wind farms. As a natural | :58:50. | :58:55. | |
occurrence of wave technology. We have a knowledge base of my | :58:56. | :58:59. | |
constituency damage to a wind farm which is outside my constituency. | :59:00. | :59:04. | |
The residents there have been blighted with a wind farm for years. | :59:05. | :59:08. | |
They cannot sell their houses or open their windows. That data is | :59:09. | :59:16. | |
there in the government would be to use that data. I have to agree with | :59:17. | :59:24. | |
the honourable lady. I have been to the farm to see the wind farm | :59:25. | :59:27. | |
myself. I met with some of the residence. I think she has the | :59:28. | :59:36. | |
illustrious Bev Grey who has provided me with more information | :59:37. | :59:39. | |
than any man could possibly want behind the readings of amplitude | :59:40. | :59:44. | |
modulation and the noise that his community suffers from on a regular | :59:45. | :59:51. | |
basis. It is not rocket science. When you do get amplitude modulation | :59:52. | :59:57. | |
people do suffer. There are genuine health concerns around this. For too | :59:58. | :00:00. | |
long have been swept under the carpet. I then said with the Denver | :00:01. | :00:10. | |
condition there is a chance visit the planning commission and try to | :00:11. | :00:18. | |
deal with it could come forward. Instead of welcoming it as a method | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
of defeating some of the wind farm opponents across the country who say | :00:24. | :00:27. | |
that you do not deal with the problem of wind, we understand there | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
is a problem with window and we will mitigate it when it happened. The | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
wind industry went into complete denial upfront aggressiveness | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
fighting this particular planning commission through the courts. Over | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
an eight-year period they took to ensure firstly the planning | :00:48. | :00:53. | |
condition was not applied, and then having it removed. And finally to | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
make sure that if it ever came back it was sufficiently weakened and it | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
was pointless if it was to ever return. I obviously would like to | :01:03. | :01:11. | |
just suggest that when we look forward on the manifesto commitments | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
of the Conservative Party of the last election, when we talk about | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
doing what we are doing with the renewable obligation change. As of | :01:21. | :01:27. | |
the end of this month. We have also brought forth the appropriate | :01:28. | :01:34. | |
planning conditions to make sure this particular problem of amplitude | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
modulation as well addressed and making wind developers and wind | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
farms and more acceptable in the parts of the country. I wonder if he | :01:46. | :01:53. | |
can answer this question now. Is it predictable? When you have a certain | :01:54. | :02:01. | |
design is impossible to say for that design there will be this much | :02:02. | :02:03. | |
modulation or is it just something that happens depending on other | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
factors which is quite hard to plan for? As predictable as much as the | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
wind is predictable. You know which direction it is coming from and how | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
fast it is going to be. You can predict a zone which will be | :02:17. | :02:23. | |
affected. On any given basis on any given day. My point to my honourable | :02:24. | :02:31. | |
friend is firstly not to give up on the changes to the renewable | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
obligation. This is a manifesto commitment. I have personally some | :02:37. | :02:47. | |
concerns with the report that she commissioned by her department and | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
would like to see judged against the evidence that I have taken to her | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
going forward. Just to make the point that had the wind industry did | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
behaved any more pragmatic and sensible way going back a few years | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
we probably would not have been this position in first place. I know | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
there are, and I am saying this, and I am known for my views on this | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
subject, I know there are sensible developers out there of wind | :03:18. | :03:19. | |
technology who try to do their best for the local communities that they | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
install these turbines in. Unfortunately, I don't have an | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
example of that in my constituency. I think that the wind industry has | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
broken up this issue. I rise to move amendments 24 233 and | :03:35. | :04:01. | |
4246. On the order paper for the amendments for this report stage. So | :04:02. | :04:13. | |
moving I want to emphasise those amendments stand individually they | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
are in fact a collective whole and today refer to successive parts of | :04:17. | :04:26. | |
both the amendments to the bill as it came from another place that the | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
government placed into the bill at committee stage to cut short the | :04:32. | :04:39. | |
closing date of the renewable obligation from its original date of | :04:40. | :04:48. | |
the 31st of March 2017 to 31st of March 2016. The effect of the | :04:49. | :04:55. | |
amendments that we have placed today is to move those dates and the dates | :04:56. | :05:03. | |
which are set out in the various grace period provisions that have | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
been placed into the bill by the government to around a date of the | :05:11. | :05:19. | |
1st of March 2000 17. That is the amendments they do bring propose | :05:20. | :05:25. | |
closer of the Aru forward from the 1st of March 2017, the first -- 31st | :05:26. | :05:34. | |
of March. As the present proposal before us. I want to add as well | :05:35. | :05:42. | |
that's I do have some freezers in terms of the present closer dates | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
that is in front of this as far as his bill is concerned. For its | :05:49. | :05:59. | |
robustness in the face of the passage of this bill itself. We are | :06:00. | :06:06. | |
today discussing report stage as Honorable members can see. A closure | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
date, very close to the day that we are discussing the closure date. The | :06:13. | :06:23. | |
passage of the rest of this bill having come from another place in | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
the first instance is one that will have to finish. In another place, | :06:29. | :06:37. | |
shortly. Certainly having a closure date before us today that is just a | :06:38. | :06:48. | |
fortnight or so away from today does, in my view, create | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
considerable difficulties for the closure of the Aru itself under the | :06:52. | :07:03. | |
present circumstances. I think may well be understood it is not the | :07:04. | :07:06. | |
case that we are discussing something today that does not exist | :07:07. | :07:09. | |
and can be brought into existence by legislation. We are discussing | :07:10. | :07:15. | |
something that not only exists today and if we do nothing as far as | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
legislation is concerned, will continue to carry on until the 31st | :07:21. | :07:29. | |
of March 2017. We discussing something which is on the face of | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
legislation in this house already that is a specific mention of | :07:33. | :07:39. | |
legislation in this house that the renewable obligation comes to an end | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
on the 31st of March 2000 17. That means if nothing actually happens to | :07:46. | :07:49. | |
stop that from carrying on that it will carry on until a particular | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
date. And tends any sense as far as legislation here is concerned. We | :07:57. | :08:04. | |
have one go and changing the date. Indeed if this bill is still on its | :08:05. | :08:12. | |
passage through the houses apartments, after the closure date | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
has come into being we will in fact be in a position of retrospective | :08:17. | :08:26. | |
legislation. We know the case that from the moment everyone knew the | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
general election it was going to be done as expeditiously as possible, | :08:33. | :08:35. | |
surely ever want to plan perfectly well around that obvious point? The | :08:36. | :08:42. | |
right Honorable member has perhaps jumped the gun in the point he | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
wanted to make. About the effect of this particular closure. That is a | :08:48. | :08:51. | |
different point from the point I am actually making about this closure. | :08:52. | :08:58. | |
Which is that we stand in danger and the imposition of not investor | :08:59. | :09:05. | |
conference finance or certainty but what we do in terms of exposing this | :09:06. | :09:12. | |
house to the potential of legal action relating to the fact that | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
although a renewable obligation will be closed administratively by this | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
government it will not have been legislatively. If there are | :09:24. | :09:33. | |
continuing discussions before the bill comes to a close and receives | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
Royal assent in those discussions continue on before the 31st of March | :09:40. | :09:48. | |
2016. I hear what the honourable gentleman is saying but isn't there | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
an issue of fairness and social equity here in that he is making a | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
special plea on behalf of the renewable companies for what is | :09:57. | :09:59. | |
effectively a defect of fiscal payments for some of the poorest | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
consumers in fuel poverty to those individuals in those companies. | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
Isn't that the bigger issue not least also the fact we have | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
intellectual mandates to carry through this policy which he is well | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
aware of. I will come to the question of whether the Honorable | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
members party as an electoral mandates carry through this policy | :10:23. | :10:25. | |
in a moment. Again this is not the point that I am making right now. As | :10:26. | :10:33. | |
a point that we stands in danger. Of indeed legal action available. To | :10:34. | :10:42. | |
those who do not want this obligation to be close. And indeed | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
perhaps the honourable member might reflect on the fact that the mandate | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
perhaps if there is a mandate to get on and do it. And to do it properly. | :10:53. | :10:59. | |
And it's not incompetently. In such a way that legal action is selling | :11:00. | :11:05. | |
that one can be exposed to. The point of the fact that the renewable | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
obligation is here has been here for quite a long time and as the | :11:11. | :11:17. | |
legislation at the moment states will continue until the 31st of | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
March 2017 unless someone does something from happening. If no one | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
has done anything from stopping it happening by the 31st of March 2016 | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
then claims can still be put forward. For the renewable | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
obligation after that day. It says on the face of legislation that | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
renewable obligation continues. In practice I would not think that many | :11:44. | :11:52. | |
people would venture forward to seek certification for renewable | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
obligation after the 31st of March after 2016 Crystal discussing it in | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
this house. That possibility is open however. It is something that I | :12:01. | :12:09. | |
think reflects to some extent. Editing a new doctrine that the | :12:10. | :12:12. | |
government should never try and change the law because the | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
opposition might try and delay it. I think the Honorable member misses | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
the point I am making. It is not trying to delay the law, but it is | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
the fact that in terms of the rush to close this renewable obligation | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
not by the Government or the opposition, the subsequence, nature | :12:32. | :12:42. | |
of this and the way it has been scheduled. And the way that is | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
physically possible that further stages may be scheduled and the net | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
result of that is that the government and not the opposition | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
they put it in a position that retrospective legislation is | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
apparently the case and at the possibility of legal action is | :13:02. | :13:08. | |
apparently the case. It is important that we remember that today. One of | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
the reasons why I am suggesting that the closure of the renewable | :13:14. | :13:22. | |
obligation ought to be early is because that is among things that | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
actually avoids that potential legal action taking place. In reality what | :13:27. | :13:37. | |
we know is that the proposed closure of the renewable obligation, in the | :13:38. | :13:48. | |
early is not about carrying out a particular manifesto pledge if these | :13:49. | :13:56. | |
are the renewable obligations not a new subsidy. That is what the was in | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
the conservative manifesto and indeed we have had discussions about | :14:02. | :14:09. | |
this issue. The proposals that are before us are about putting an end | :14:10. | :14:17. | |
to something that has been in place for a considerable period of time, | :14:18. | :14:24. | |
has worked well, was about to change in good time to a new system which | :14:25. | :14:28. | |
does allow for underwriting in the path down to the ending of effective | :14:29. | :14:36. | |
dissolving subsidies and underwriting technology to achieve | :14:37. | :14:43. | |
market parity. And something which industry investors were clear about | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
and were confident about. They were confident not just the fact that the | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
renewable obligation had worked for a while, but there was a clear | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
process that renewable obligation would come to an end, and there was | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
a clear process where the contracts were different and new system which | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
was discussed at length in the energy bill in 2013. There was a | :15:06. | :15:13. | |
clear line of progression from one to the other and orderly roll-outs | :15:14. | :15:23. | |
of renewable energy getting progressive and more cheaper over a | :15:24. | :15:33. | |
period. In formulating his amendments has yet time to get to | :15:34. | :15:40. | |
the climate change select committee. Of course that governments current | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
party would lead to build increasing. The Honorable member is | :15:45. | :15:50. | |
absolutely right to draw attention to that report and indeed to the | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
issue that has arisen not just on these particular changes but from | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
other abrupt and policy that the government has undertaken in the | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
field of renewable energy. The net result overall has been a dramatic | :16:07. | :16:14. | |
drop in investor confidence and a dramatic fall from advanced | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
positions as far as being a country in which it was regarded as a safe | :16:20. | :16:26. | |
place and a good place to invest in as far as renewable energy is | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
concerned. And indeed, as a result of the policy lurches I feel with | :16:31. | :16:36. | |
many investors the world is not one of confusion with the possibility | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
that they perhaps do not recommend the investments go ahead in the | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
boardrooms as far as this country is concerned and perhaps in light the | :16:46. | :16:48. | |
competitiveness of other countries as far as renewables is concerned | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
that they put those renewables elsewhere. This policy lurches has | :16:53. | :17:02. | |
thrown very many programmes in two confusion. It has thrown a lot of | :17:03. | :17:10. | |
potential investment in this country not just in the form of onshore wind | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
but the form of her new boss. These things tend to create spread across | :17:17. | :17:21. | |
the confidence in other areas of investment. When had well just been | :17:22. | :17:29. | |
left alone it would have been possible to visage of a secure | :17:30. | :17:36. | |
circumstance with a clear understanding of what investors were | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
doing and a clear understanding of what those investments would change | :17:42. | :17:47. | |
over time. This is not about putting an end to new subsidies, it is a | :17:48. | :17:56. | |
question of taking a well understood long-lived subsidy and actually | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
removing it before the period when investors, the market, and everyone | :18:03. | :18:09. | |
else had expected it to be come to an end and be replaced by another | :18:10. | :18:15. | |
system. Indeed as late as the spring of this year after I imagine a | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
conservative manifesto being written, the Secretary of State made | :18:20. | :18:29. | |
it clear that the RO was to close in 2017 and it would be undertaken and | :18:30. | :18:32. | |
it therefore came as more of a surprise to investors in the market | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
that this change would been undertaken. Previously the | :18:38. | :18:40. | |
government had been so confident that the procedure had the under it | :18:41. | :18:50. | |
was originally set out. Under this removal of the renewable obligation | :18:51. | :18:56. | |
closure early date. Is that it is all OK because we are reaching | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
targets of onshore wind. Indeed in terms of our renewable targets our | :19:02. | :19:10. | |
2020 targets for the proportion of renewable energy that will make up | :19:11. | :19:17. | |
our overall energy mix, 50% is our commitment as far as European | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
targets of 2020 is concerned. -- 15%. It was represented by wind, | :19:23. | :19:32. | |
particularly onshore winds, is reaching its targets and therefore | :19:33. | :19:38. | |
it is OK to actually and the RO early in place the market in two | :19:39. | :19:47. | |
confusion and has been placed into. We have to bear in mind when we are | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
looking at that particular target we are looking at other components. On | :19:54. | :20:00. | |
heat and on transport. It is a targets which by the way, the UK can | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
be fined as far as missing is concerned. It is also a target which | :20:06. | :20:14. | |
can be achieved by overachieving in some areas even if you are | :20:15. | :20:20. | |
underachieving and others. The 12% renewable heat target, which we are | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
failing miserably on at the moment, the 10% renewable field -- fuel | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
target. Could actually be supported by continuing supporting onshore | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
wind in this country. In order to make sure those targets were met. To | :20:36. | :20:43. | |
cut onshore wind in this way might suggest, Mr Deputy Speaker, just | :20:44. | :20:46. | |
when the extent of the failure to keep the overall target is | :20:47. | :20:54. | |
irresponsible to say the lease. The further claim that we have heard in | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
the passage of this bill is that this is all being done to help | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
customers who have to pay for the underwriting of onshore wind. Of | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
course, it is very important that we consider what bills customers are | :21:09. | :21:12. | |
paying. When we go about deciding how best we established our energy | :21:13. | :21:19. | |
mix for the future. We will have to establish our energy mix that is the | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
most affordable, is the least carbon icing, and is the most secure over | :21:26. | :21:34. | |
the next period. Clearly this is being done to help customers in | :21:35. | :21:42. | |
reality paper-thin. Among other things, because if the government | :21:43. | :21:45. | |
were serious about renewables in general as they claim they are, the | :21:46. | :21:53. | |
hole left by onshore wind by the closure of the RO and other things | :21:54. | :22:00. | |
there is a loss of ?1 billion on the cards as result of what is happening | :22:01. | :22:05. | |
in terms of lack of investment following on from the changes indeed | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
is the select committee has reflected. The point is that those | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
polls will need to be made up by other renewable sources that are at | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
present more expensive to underwrite. Then the onshore wind | :22:20. | :22:26. | |
that they replace. The next outcome of this particular measure could | :22:27. | :22:31. | |
well be that actually the costs to customers is considerably more than | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
is the case at the moment it particular abridgments at the stand | :22:37. | :22:38. | |
right now I have been allowed to continue to their conclusion. | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
Indeed, onshore wind is at the root bleeding edge of market parity. The | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
government will be aware was on a stained blind path to parity when | :22:50. | :22:57. | |
investor confidence high. I estimate that the test -- damage to investor | :22:58. | :23:08. | |
confidence is Norma's. -- enormous. It was competitive deployment will | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
progress a cliff in which investment will fall. The further claim that | :23:14. | :23:29. | |
the change that is being proposed in this bill is necessary is all to do | :23:30. | :23:40. | |
with the Levy control framework, the eminent that we have these days is a | :23:41. | :23:49. | |
control framework formed and ask security by government and has the | :23:50. | :23:56. | |
same background gloom that people attend to have the Thai collations | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
in variations that have the consequence. It was devised in 2011 | :24:03. | :24:10. | |
by the government to get us into a position where something like seven | :24:11. | :24:19. | |
points ?6 billion at 2012 prices of Levy payers money -- seven 6p, that | :24:20. | :24:37. | |
is... Was supposed to provide a framework for renewables to develop | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
within. The Levy control framework I think a number of honourable members | :24:42. | :24:47. | |
will be aware is based on a static end points, 2020 in this instance. | :24:48. | :24:57. | |
When actually prices are very low. It is based on the idea of a strike | :24:58. | :25:04. | |
price, which energy, renewable energy will receive. Agreed in | :25:05. | :25:12. | |
certainly is for onshore wind is concerned an auction process. | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
Against a reference price which is the price that is the medium price | :25:17. | :25:24. | |
for energy at a particular time. They will be considered in two of | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
what rewards will be undertaken for that renewable energy. As and if | :25:29. | :25:35. | |
energy prices go down than the difference between the strike price | :25:36. | :25:39. | |
and the reference price widens. Although renewable energy | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
development will receive the same amount of money for their renewable | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
energy the makeup of that particular amount of money to the renewable | :25:50. | :25:53. | |
energy developer will turn out to be very different. That is the more | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
prices go down the less they will get in terms of the reference price | :25:59. | :26:04. | |
as the more they will get in the difference of the reference price in | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
the strike price from the daily control framework. The Levy control | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
framework over the period of time as it is presently designed increases | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
the reward to those who are inside the system even though they don't | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
get a total additional reward, but it squeezes new interest out of the | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
process because all of the money is made up of rewarding those who are | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
already inside the system and less and less money is made up of | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
providing money from new interest outside the system. Many | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
commentators consider that the Levy control framework in its present | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
form is essentially busts as far as new entrants are concerned. | :26:47. | :26:58. | |
Therefore the claim that the relatively small amount of change | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
that will be undertaken by the Levy control of framework by ending the | :27:04. | :27:08. | |
renewable obligation period a year early is all about how the Levy | :27:09. | :27:11. | |
control framework balances itself. It is already a pretty thin claim | :27:12. | :27:17. | |
indeed. Bearing in mind for city range of headroom is that | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
theoretically has been in the Levy control framework added to | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
difficulties of the Levy control framework itself has. I was struck | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
recently by a simultaneous announcement that government will be | :27:33. | :27:45. | |
closing the RO early. To have other technology to save an estimate of ?1 | :27:46. | :27:54. | |
2020. Line the same breath as it expensive thing which will be paid | :27:55. | :28:01. | |
for by customers and in this instance but ?20 on bills by 2020. | :28:02. | :28:06. | |
In this instance it is estimated that the early closure of the | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
renewable obligation saves bill pay or something like 30p on their | :28:12. | :28:17. | |
bills. It increases their carbon emissions by millions of tonnes. The | :28:18. | :28:25. | |
number of conservative parties back benches on wind as it is about a | :28:26. | :28:33. | |
surgical strike on an area of difficulty and your honourable | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
friends for the control framework. As the inadequacies of the grace | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
period of this organisation show it is not even if this government will | :28:43. | :28:48. | |
benefit the schemes from those backbenchers and need to ensure the | :28:49. | :28:57. | |
look making favours wind that we on the side support incidentally. | :28:58. | :29:00. | |
Providing it really is the case because of a wind farm get support | :29:01. | :29:04. | |
to the planning process and has community backing as many schemes | :29:05. | :29:10. | |
currently do, then it does get the go-ahead from government. It really | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
is the principle behind the deployment of onshore winds that the | :29:15. | :29:17. | |
government supports than it should immediately include other than | :29:18. | :29:20. | |
exclude in number of schemes which is the current case. The schemes | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
have always gone on the path of seeking local support and seeking | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
local payment agreements and instead the government have put in place an | :29:30. | :29:32. | |
arbitrary cutoff dates for such schemes even if they were in an | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
advanced position to support them locally, there's awaiting their | :29:38. | :29:38. | |
final certificate. A few moments ago he mentioned that | :29:39. | :29:50. | |
he wasn't happy he didn't appear to be happy that the capacity auction | :29:51. | :29:54. | |
with the government announced two weeks ago in the way has it that has | :29:55. | :30:01. | |
with the Labor front bench the capacity auction should not be | :30:02. | :30:09. | |
brought forward? The question of whether the capacity auction to be | :30:10. | :30:12. | |
brought forward to an extent is a subset of the government believes | :30:13. | :30:15. | |
those capacity options will actually be produced in the capacity or not | :30:16. | :30:21. | |
the honourable member is fully aware. Indeed the capacity auction | :30:22. | :30:27. | |
controls the framework I won't go into much deeper rather tepid | :30:28. | :30:33. | |
arranges that the government has arranged as far as those auctions | :30:34. | :30:36. | |
are concerned simply to try bringing auction forward by a gear with | :30:37. | :30:43. | |
roughly the same parameters applying with clearance prices of the auction | :30:44. | :30:46. | |
and roughly the same parameters about the distance between the | :30:47. | :30:53. | |
clearance prices and the price to secure any new investment over the | :30:54. | :30:57. | |
15 year period, it doesn't necessarily strike me as a smartest | :30:58. | :31:02. | |
way to proceed with the aim of actually procuring long-term | :31:03. | :31:06. | |
capacity in the capacity market itself. I think it is required of a | :31:07. | :31:14. | |
capacity options to secure that and of the next period. But where I was | :31:15. | :31:22. | |
just briefly, thinking about before that intervention, was indeed the | :31:23. | :31:35. | |
subject of two back the House amendment 23 which I'm meeting also | :31:36. | :31:45. | |
today -- moving. Schemes that have local support received should | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
proceed and should adopt these amendments. These amendments are | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
about schemes that have actually undertaken all the right moves and | :31:55. | :31:57. | |
germs of getting local agreement to their particular plans, all the | :31:58. | :32:01. | |
inquiries, the concerns, the planning arrangements, they are | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
actually on the cusp of hitting those agreements agreed on. The | :32:07. | :32:11. | |
planning on the local authority level in the government had just | :32:12. | :32:18. | |
pulled the plug on that. The government therefore ought to adopt | :32:19. | :32:25. | |
these amendments with its own principle that local areas should | :32:26. | :32:29. | |
decide on local schemes and those local schemes could support where | :32:30. | :32:35. | |
local community supported him. Conversely however Mr Speaker I fear | :32:36. | :32:42. | |
that the bill if it is amended is a programme on wind short execution, | :32:43. | :32:49. | |
and not on wind short programme. Our vision on the side of the House is | :32:50. | :32:53. | |
locally supported up on shore when deployment complement in other | :32:54. | :32:59. | |
places such as solar, optional wind options. Not because we have to do, | :33:00. | :33:04. | |
but it is the right thing to do it insure and we have a balanced low | :33:05. | :33:08. | |
carbon energy for the future. This bill stands in respect to this | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
Clause points in the opposite direction. I earned -- urged the | :33:14. | :33:22. | |
honourable members... Mr Deputy Speaker I rise to support the | :33:23. | :33:26. | |
government in projection of the amendment which would delay getting | :33:27. | :33:29. | |
rid of these subsidies for wind power. Our country desperately needs | :33:30. | :33:35. | |
more electrical power to be available, I am pleased the | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
government is now taking action with capacity auction to get more power | :33:42. | :33:45. | |
available. It is more affordable power available. We need to tackle | :33:46. | :33:50. | |
fuel poverty and prices that households can afford and purchase | :33:51. | :33:53. | |
we need to have affordable power for extra industry which is one of the | :33:54. | :34:05. | |
tensor product aims. People expect continuous power for light and to | :34:06. | :34:12. | |
power their home, the industry needs continuous power for its processes. | :34:13. | :34:18. | |
So for all his ground when it does not cut the mustard Mr Speaker. I am | :34:19. | :34:23. | |
glad we have a government that recognises this. What the European | :34:24. | :34:32. | |
Union is doing, what the Labour government is doing on energy policy | :34:33. | :34:36. | |
will go down as one of their catastrophic failures. I think it is | :34:37. | :34:41. | |
to be the exchange rate mechanism was destroyed much clap posterity in | :34:42. | :34:47. | |
our country. It may not be as big as the disaster of the euro which may | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
be the biggest classic possessed of the European Union. Europe as a | :34:53. | :34:57. | |
whole, is becoming a area of two high-cost energy which is driving it | :34:58. | :35:08. | |
out of the European Union. Far from sparing the planet any extra carbon | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
dioxide, all these mad policy doing is the future carbon dioxide is | :35:13. | :35:15. | |
produced somewhere else rather than within the European Union itself. | :35:16. | :35:18. | |
When we look at the company like Germany, went in its respect you can | :35:19. | :35:24. | |
admire, they have much more wind power, what happens when the wind | :35:25. | :35:29. | |
doesn't blow up Mr Speaker I hop up tight what happens when the wind | :35:30. | :35:34. | |
doesn't blow. Germany relies on extremely dirty coal powers to turn | :35:35. | :35:36. | |
the electricity producing more carbon dioxide, which on average | :35:37. | :35:44. | |
would have been better than the strange mixture of wind when the | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
wind blows, the back-up power very often in Germany and Europe | :35:51. | :35:55. | |
generated from coal is extremely bad for carbon dioxide, when the wind | :35:56. | :36:04. | |
doesn't blow. In fact in Germany these the cold all the time the | :36:05. | :36:11. | |
reason the carbon emissions 30% higher than the UK unit of GDP and | :36:12. | :36:23. | |
at capita to be so much fossil fuel and cold here as well. When the wind | :36:24. | :36:29. | |
doesn't blow then you can use more coal because obviously it there | :36:30. | :36:34. | |
replaces the come from fossil fuel, so my point is that the wind system | :36:35. | :36:39. | |
with fossil fuel back-up doesn't even work on its own terms and he is | :36:40. | :36:43. | |
right that the German merit order is somewhat different in this country | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
as we would like to point out Mr Deputy Speaker we have managed to do | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
every damage of power in our generation from an economic point of | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
view. Because it insists on giving economic priority like wind it means | :36:58. | :37:03. | |
that the more liable to per sources like gas, themselves become | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
intermittent because they have to be switched off every time the wind | :37:08. | :37:10. | |
blows, and switched back on every time the wind isn't blowing, which | :37:11. | :37:16. | |
in itself is difficult and expensive process. But also undermines the | :37:17. | :37:20. | |
economics, which would otherwise be good economic power because you | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
can't run the power plants flat out, you have higher operating costs of | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
switching on and off and managing the furnaces accordingly, where you | :37:31. | :37:38. | |
have as much generating less power that you cannot continuously sell | :37:39. | :37:44. | |
power to the market. The honourable gentleman seems to understand the | :37:45. | :37:52. | |
policy is sports the hand invested intervention that we have in the | :37:53. | :37:55. | |
market, means that we are less reliable energy with intermittent | :37:56. | :38:01. | |
unreliable energy every much cleared their energy -- cleaner energy. In | :38:02. | :38:12. | |
the weight that this is been included in the cost of renewables, | :38:13. | :38:20. | |
that the nonrenewable power I give way. Now the government per notes | :38:21. | :38:32. | |
fossil fuels is at work, energy based on fossil fuels is a smart as | :38:33. | :38:48. | |
opposed to up for... . Know it is a very interesting observation, with | :38:49. | :38:51. | |
the fundamental truth I just given him what she does not seem to have | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
reflected on at all. The truth of our current economic policy, I'll | :38:56. | :39:03. | |
give way and the second. The truth about our energy policy is that | :39:04. | :39:12. | |
various agencies have conspired unless we start to reverse those | :39:13. | :39:14. | |
interventions you get those permissions affects -- pernicious. | :39:15. | :39:27. | |
That doesn't mean that it is a good idea which is something that was | :39:28. | :39:32. | |
very unreliable. It is dear then unremarkable fuel. I give way. Which | :39:33. | :39:50. | |
I wonder with his own constituent which actually takes a great deal of | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
work bouncing the system and includes substantial constraints as | :39:55. | :40:00. | |
well as nonfossil fuel and fossil fuel inputs into the system, which | :40:01. | :40:05. | |
causes actual shortages in power delivery at various stages whether | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
fossil fuel or nonfossil fuel delivery queue might reflect on that | :40:11. | :40:18. | |
in terms of his comments was white? Very instant comments, the last was | :40:19. | :40:26. | |
quite recently they were saying it is very difficult to manage the | :40:27. | :40:31. | |
systems with more intermittent winds put on the system and I think the | :40:32. | :40:35. | |
honourable gentleman for reinforcing my point I'm not sure that's what he | :40:36. | :40:38. | |
was trying to do but that is exactly what he does -- it does. The changes | :40:39. | :40:50. | |
of the weather and the winds is screen factor could be accounted for | :40:51. | :40:55. | |
primarily with Palm systems they could send a command from working to | :40:56. | :40:59. | |
ignore to the water came down the hill very quickly the kettles could | :41:00. | :41:05. | |
boil, the interval could whatever was causing the surge in power | :41:06. | :41:08. | |
demand, it is much more difficult to the same time with the wind suddenly | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
drops get the call power for other reasons. It is also leading to but | :41:13. | :41:19. | |
more interconnected with other countries that we then connected | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
order of power on a regular basis which is then not something I value. | :41:24. | :41:28. | |
I want is to secure energy supply in our country, we are after all the | :41:29. | :41:44. | |
land of seed oil and gas -- see. But as I want a industrial revival in | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
this country, industrial revival could well start with importing less | :41:49. | :41:55. | |
electricity is popular it is about security would he raise concerns, | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
about the operation of the capacity market. As a huge deal among money | :42:01. | :42:09. | |
and it is a monument to sleep feeling... The reason you end up | :42:10. | :42:18. | |
with this cast, to try and make you can't run gas flat out into the | :42:19. | :42:22. | |
benefits of running it in the most economical way possible. Yes I would | :42:23. | :42:28. | |
rather have a much simpler market, I think the market works better in the | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
80s and the 90s it was much more competitive and power prices peaked | :42:33. | :42:39. | |
out a lot something like 25% in extra supplies we never had to worry | :42:40. | :42:44. | |
about if you had a cold day with the wind not blowing and whether the | :42:45. | :42:47. | |
industry was quite well. They had to switch the machines off under that | :42:48. | :42:55. | |
regime now we have is grossly intervened regime with subsidies and | :42:56. | :42:59. | |
priorities that don't reflect the economic powers of production. As | :43:00. | :43:05. | |
the honourable gentleman rightly points out, you have to be quite | :43:06. | :43:11. | |
high to provide gas phase power because you can't guarantee them | :43:12. | :43:14. | |
full access to the market on a continuous basis. The more | :43:15. | :43:21. | |
interventions you have over the years, Labour Party conservatives, | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
the more it intervention in this regime you'll try to change it to | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
make it work better the higher the prices must be because people become | :43:31. | :43:35. | |
more suspicious if government has so much power, if the government keeps | :43:36. | :43:40. | |
changing his mind. So it is quite easy from a relatively free | :43:41. | :43:44. | |
successful market to badly damage wreaked subsidizing... You have so | :43:45. | :43:57. | |
positioned in the minds of the investors, bigger contracts bigger | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
guarantees higher prices to give them some kind of offset as they | :44:03. | :44:10. | |
fear you might tinker unnecessarily. The government in its view I wish | :44:11. | :44:13. | |
the government would get on with the remainder subsidies with onshore | :44:14. | :44:19. | |
wind and the wind we said we would do, I hope the opposition will not | :44:20. | :44:24. | |
delay further we get plenty of notified notice of this to get a | :44:25. | :44:38. | |
better energy market. Onshore winds is the inexpensive form of renewable | :44:39. | :44:44. | |
energy and is therefore critical, to maximise input into across the UK to | :44:45. | :44:52. | |
enable both Scotland and the rest of the UK to hit and meet claim change | :44:53. | :45:03. | |
targets. Closing the RO early, pounds of... The forecast of saving | :45:04. | :45:13. | |
bills, this equates to 63 million tonnes of CO2 and is therefore a | :45:14. | :45:22. | |
missed opportunity in terms of hitting climate change targets. I | :45:23. | :45:26. | |
spoke at length at the committee in terms of grace periods to get them | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
right as I won't Labor the point here, however it is important and | :45:32. | :45:34. | |
should not disadvantage projects with no follow their own fall to the | :45:35. | :45:43. | |
cracks due to closure of the RO. My friends out the honourable members | :45:44. | :45:49. | |
as he is no longer in his place, they have both spoken about the real | :45:50. | :45:56. | |
and very difficult deterioration of invested confidence, now is | :45:57. | :46:03. | |
proceeding it must be done fairly and with a view to the critical part | :46:04. | :46:07. | |
of onshore wind plays in the over all energy solution for the UK. We | :46:08. | :46:14. | |
must keep the lights on, and this is why I am moving forward amendment | :46:15. | :46:16. | |
eight of the bill thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. | :46:17. | :46:29. | |
As they made clear during our last debate on this issue are the | :46:30. | :46:40. | |
equivalent approach about onshore winds in order to provide | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
consistency to industry and to protect the bills. So amendment 50 | :46:45. | :46:50. | |
is in relation to Clause 81 to backstop our regarding Northern | :46:51. | :46:53. | |
Ireland. At committee stage, I introduced a Clause with a view crew | :46:54. | :46:59. | |
of protecting viewers the macro customers in group a and -- Great | :47:00. | :47:06. | |
Britain. I'd like your remind the honourable members the Clause | :47:07. | :47:08. | |
receives considerable support at that stage, but also with backstop | :47:09. | :47:15. | |
power. That is only to save the power is exercised if Northern | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
Ireland decides not to close the Northern Ireland renewable | :47:20. | :47:22. | |
obligation scheme to renew onshore winds with renewable terms. This new | :47:23. | :47:28. | |
moment simply clarifies the drafting of the Clause, to ensure consistency | :47:29. | :47:33. | |
with the early closure of the renewals observation by making it | :47:34. | :47:42. | |
clear that the power in Clause 81 extends to additional capacity adds | :47:43. | :47:46. | |
to on store... Onshore wind stations. So Mr Deputy Speaker I | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
should highlight that the intent behind the Clause is not use at all. | :47:51. | :47:56. | |
Coming now to a nongovernment amendment I like to thank all | :47:57. | :47:59. | |
honourable members for the complements and I will not respond | :48:00. | :48:05. | |
to the amendment to this group. A number of amendments specifically | :48:06. | :48:11. | |
set out one through 21 have already been discussed in some detail and at | :48:12. | :48:17. | |
length during committee. Mr Deputy Speaker as far as I can see | :48:18. | :48:29. | |
following their agreement not to... Gerald... But to ensure clarity for | :48:30. | :48:33. | |
the honourable members that have not attended that debate, to move | :48:34. | :48:37. | |
forward this debate, I am very happy to gain this government position. I | :48:38. | :48:44. | |
will remind these are all members of clauses 79, and 80. Closet 79 | :48:45. | :48:49. | |
implements the early closure of the renewables obligation to onshore | :48:50. | :48:53. | |
winds in Great Britain. Clause 80 sets up the great period under which | :48:54. | :48:59. | |
certain period projects may be accredited beyond the early closure | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
date. So let me be very clear at this point. The government remains | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
committed to delivering our manifesto pledge to end new | :49:09. | :49:11. | |
subsidies for onshore wind, and I'm grateful to my right honourable | :49:12. | :49:17. | |
friend am I to my other honourable friends for their clear support | :49:18. | :49:22. | |
expressed during this debate. But, the government is also conscious of | :49:23. | :49:28. | |
industry certainty and to respond to the quest the honourable friend I | :49:29. | :49:33. | |
like to make it clear that if it goes beyond this bill be on the 31st | :49:34. | :49:43. | |
of March,, and it does not intend to back the provisions. I want to | :49:44. | :49:47. | |
reiterate there is absolutely no change to our commitment to and new | :49:48. | :49:51. | |
subsidies for onshore winds and our actions have shown that we are going | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
to be tough on subsidies in order to keep bills down for families and | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
businesses. Onshore wind has deployed successfully to date, and | :50:03. | :50:07. | |
as demonstrated renewable obligations into account, we expect | :50:08. | :50:14. | |
onshore to fall within our delivery plan projections at 11 to 13 | :50:15. | :50:21. | |
gigawatts by 2020. This is our best estimate of what is needed to meet | :50:22. | :50:25. | |
our 2020 target, and is what is affordable by low spending cap. When | :50:26. | :50:31. | |
we announced early closure on the 18th of June, we said it was | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
appropriate that the did appointment of onshore wind balancing the | :50:37. | :50:40. | |
interests of onshore developers with the white public. As I have | :50:41. | :50:45. | |
explained in our debates, the grace period with Clause 80 would develop | :50:46. | :50:52. | |
extensive state engagement and would be designed physically to divide | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
specific seat and clarity in the market. Referred to as the condition | :50:58. | :51:10. | |
in the bill. This requires projects under the RO under the March 2017 -- | :51:11. | :51:25. | |
2017... All confirmation that no connection is required and three | :51:26. | :51:32. | |
Access to land rights so Mr Deputy Speaker following further industry | :51:33. | :51:35. | |
given and announced to buy my department, the bill provisions have | :51:36. | :51:39. | |
been improved in a number of ways. Firstly to capture those projects | :51:40. | :51:42. | |
which have a planning application refused before the eight 10th of | :51:43. | :51:55. | |
June -- 18th of June. Which is then subsequently granted consents... | :51:56. | :52:04. | |
Allowing certain projects that qualify for the grace period an | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
additional nine months in which to accredit whether they have been | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
unable to secure debt funding due to legislative uncertainty. Thirdly, to | :52:14. | :52:20. | |
provide the existing rid in regard grace period will be available so | :52:21. | :52:25. | |
that projects who have suffered out of control of their area will have a | :52:26. | :52:28. | |
further 12 months in which to accredit. Let me take a moment to | :52:29. | :52:35. | |
reflect on this. The government believes that the early closure | :52:36. | :52:40. | |
grace period provisions we have put in the bill strikes the right | :52:41. | :52:44. | |
balance between protecting invested confidence and ensuring our costs | :52:45. | :52:51. | |
under the living control framework I give Wade. Does she create a | :52:52. | :53:10. | |
understand this difficulty obviously in Wales the infrastructure | :53:11. | :53:12. | |
applications Wales and England are different can they come together? | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
I'm grateful to the honourable General plan for his point -- | :53:17. | :53:26. | |
gentlemen those clarity have gotten it from the words in the debates, | :53:27. | :53:32. | |
and on the face of the bill. Invested confidence seems to be the | :53:33. | :53:41. | |
main reason used to support more changes. Many of the under other | :53:42. | :53:45. | |
amendments which have been tabled here today so let me make reference | :53:46. | :53:51. | |
to the energy and climate change select committee recent inquiry | :53:52. | :53:55. | |
invested confidence which was included later this year I want to | :53:56. | :54:00. | |
reflect at one point in particular which was raised in the committee's | :54:01. | :54:11. | |
sessions. He suggested that if that investments... For example in | :54:12. | :54:15. | |
offshore wind, foreign policies actually putting investors off for | :54:16. | :54:22. | |
policy the UK significant as it is so coming forward. So Mr Deputy | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
Speaker I like to think my honourable friend as well as my | :54:28. | :54:35. | |
honourable friend over there, who have all raised with me the | :54:36. | :54:40. | |
important issues around noise impact from onshore wind farms and the | :54:41. | :54:43. | |
impact they can have on the local level I can confirm to them | :54:44. | :54:49. | |
specifically hope the spread of onshore wind farms and change the | :54:50. | :54:54. | |
laws to the local people have the final say on wind farm applications. | :54:55. | :54:58. | |
We are making sure that people's concerns are sure and addressed that | :54:59. | :55:06. | |
amplitude modulation and ways are controlled. We touched on this on | :55:07. | :55:10. | |
the committee, as I said then we would address them at matter and | :55:11. | :55:16. | |
find a solution to the problem. This might be taking longer than my | :55:17. | :55:19. | |
honourable friend would like, but we are taking independent advice on how | :55:20. | :55:22. | |
best to act in light of that advice, which I do expect to receive | :55:23. | :55:26. | |
shortly. So at this stage, I can't comment further but I think my | :55:27. | :55:30. | |
honourable friend will continue to beat patient with me in the laws and | :55:31. | :55:34. | |
we are very closely looking at this. So turning out to New Clause to Mac | :55:35. | :55:46. | |
it is imperative that the early in order to protect consumers from the | :55:47. | :55:49. | |
risk of over deployment by what beyond what has been degreed. New | :55:50. | :55:58. | |
Clause dos mac would allow Scottish ministers for Scottish ministers | :55:59. | :56:02. | |
under the obligation as a cost consumers right across the Great | :56:03. | :56:06. | |
Britain in fact our estimates show in 2015, 20 million pounds were | :56:07. | :56:15. | |
approximately 60% of our support are ready to go to funding onshore wind | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
farms in the around 20% of UK bill payers are in Scotland. The | :56:21. | :56:27. | |
honourable member busy tabled this at that time we discussed Scotland | :56:28. | :56:33. | |
being willing to take responsibility to taking that obligation. During | :56:34. | :56:38. | |
the debate, the honourable member of Cambridge responded with the short | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
answered no to that suggestion. I can't imagine that his position has | :56:45. | :56:47. | |
changed in the brief period of time since that debate. Turning out | :56:48. | :56:56. | |
amendments eight a planning committee made have been reminded to | :56:57. | :56:59. | |
grant planning consent but woods to not have full operation of the 18th | :57:00. | :57:05. | |
of June last year that Mr Deputy Speaker would include projects with | :57:06. | :57:10. | |
had just had an indication that they received planning consent subject to | :57:11. | :57:19. | |
section 106 all those projects were minded to approve a planning | :57:20. | :57:24. | |
application before the 18th of June. The planning was not issued until | :57:25. | :57:27. | |
after the state. Such an amendment would lead to additional appointment | :57:28. | :57:35. | |
further blurring the clear bright line which government has set out | :57:36. | :57:40. | |
projects wishing to be accredited under the RO under the 31st of | :57:41. | :57:49. | |
March. To be clear as projects did not have committee permission and | :57:50. | :57:51. | |
would not meet the grace period I'm very grateful, and to my | :57:52. | :58:03. | |
intervention, issue go to and for the House on whether the project in | :58:04. | :58:09. | |
my constituency will now be eligible for that? Did not have the | :58:10. | :58:15. | |
infrastructure planning commission, and despite my request to the | :58:16. | :58:20. | |
department, nobody can tell me or my constituents where that project will | :58:21. | :58:28. | |
be. As I have already said to the honourable gentleman, I think it is | :58:29. | :58:31. | |
very clear from words in this committee chamber as well as in the | :58:32. | :58:37. | |
bill committee, what our intentions are, and I will certainly look into | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
the case that he mentions, but I do not have the information is looking | :58:42. | :58:44. | |
for right now. I do want to turn to speak specifically to amendments | :58:45. | :58:49. | |
24-46. All of these amendments are intended to delay the early closure | :58:50. | :58:54. | |
of the RL, until the 1st of March 20 17. Closing at only one month | :58:55. | :58:56. | |
earlier than the original closure date, of the 31st of March. 2017. It | :58:57. | :59:03. | |
is therefore my understanding that Honorable members wish to see the | :59:04. | :59:07. | |
Argo closed in the onshore wind, only a month earlier than planned. | :59:08. | :59:10. | |
While maintaining the grace period provisions as set out by the | :59:11. | :59:14. | |
government. Clearly, such a change would not meet the objectives of the | :59:15. | :59:18. | |
early closure policy, which I have consistently set out in debates on | :59:19. | :59:21. | |
the bill, and which I have explained the danger today. To change the | :59:22. | :59:25. | |
early closure date to the 1st of March 2017, it would go against the | :59:26. | :59:30. | |
intentions of our manifesto commitment, but would also likely | :59:31. | :59:33. | |
have no production on overall deployment or cost, and to the levee | :59:34. | :59:38. | |
control framework. May I remind Honorable members that these limits | :59:39. | :59:41. | |
have been set for a crucial reason, as my right arm or friend the | :59:42. | :59:45. | |
Secretary of State set out in her speech in November last year, we can | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
only expect to bill payors to support low carbon power as long as | :59:50. | :59:54. | |
costs are controlled. I inherited a departmental policy costs on bills | :59:55. | :59:58. | |
in spiral. Subsidy should be temporary, not part of a permanent | :59:59. | :00:03. | |
business model. May I also remind Honorable members again that this | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
government has an electoral mandate to deliver on our manifesto | :00:08. | :00:10. | |
commitment to help the spread of onshore wind, and that is exactly | :00:11. | :00:15. | |
what this Clause is intended to do. However, the government is mindful | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
of the need to protect investor confidence, and to take into account | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
the interests of the on door -- onshore wind industry. This is why | :00:23. | :00:25. | |
we have set a grace period provisions that appear in Clause 80. | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
I believe I've consistently explained that the government has an | :00:30. | :00:34. | |
obligation to protect consumers, from the risk of over deployment of | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
new onshore wind, and rising energy bills. The date changes proposed by | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
these amendments simply put us back to where we started. Providing no | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
protection for consumers, and with the risk of deploying up to another | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
7-.1 gigawatts of onshore wind, well beyond what the government has | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
decided, under the levee control framework. To conclude, Mr Deputy | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
Speaker, I want to stress the importance of moving swiftly forward | :01:01. | :01:03. | |
with these proposals. I would like to again quote the Honorable member | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
for Coatbridge, who said during the to -- committee debate on this | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
issue, that we agree that the swift passage of the bill with clear and | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
consistent than auto grace period provisions is needed, in order to | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
provide certainty to investors in the onshore wind sector, as quickly | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
as possible. Clear and consistent provisions are exactly what this | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
government is attempting to provide, and we need to be able to move | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
forward with this debate to do so. Thank you, Mr to be the Speaker. -- | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
Deputy Speaker. We now come to amended to move 24 | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
formally. The question is that amended the 24 | :01:46. | :01:57. | |
be made, As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, | :01:58. | :01:59. | |
"no". Clear the lobbies! Voter! Order! -- order! The ayes, | :02:00. | :15:25. | |
183, the noes, 270. The ice to the right, 183, the noes to the left, | :15:26. | :15:39. | |
270. The noes have it! Will we move formally? As many as are of the | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". Clear the lobbies! | :15:45. | :18:33. | |
This is amendment take. As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
the contrary, "no". Order, order! De-ice next to the | :18:38. | :26:53. | |
right 229. The noes to the left, 271. -- the ayes. The ayes 229, the | :26:54. | :27:07. | |
nose look back 271. The noes habit. Unlock. | :27:08. | :27:19. | |
Minister to the government -- ayes. The contrary know. I think the ayes | :27:20. | :27:31. | |
habit. The not come to New Clause three. -- new. Thank you Mr Deputy | :27:32. | :27:46. | |
Speaker. I stand to move New Clause three of one and four. You are -- I | :27:47. | :27:58. | |
am confused by the ordering. On behalf of my party. It struck me in | :27:59. | :28:07. | |
the previous debate we had when the honourable member who is no longer | :28:08. | :28:12. | |
in his place talked about how we could find an environmentally | :28:13. | :28:18. | |
sustainable way of getting power from the island of coal in a sea of | :28:19. | :28:26. | |
oil and gas, which I think he was referring to Griffin in that regard. | :28:27. | :28:29. | |
I think that there may well be a way of doing that in an environmentally | :28:30. | :28:31. | |
sustainable way. That is through carbon capture and storage. New | :28:32. | :28:34. | |
Clause three that I have put forward is calling upon the government to | :28:35. | :28:41. | |
bring forward proper, well thought out, and a well consulted plant in | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
strategy for carbon captured storage and how it can be utilised in both | :28:46. | :28:53. | |
the energy and also the the energy intensive industry tobacco industry. | :28:54. | :29:05. | |
We talked a large amount about the discussion in the report from the | :29:06. | :29:16. | |
energy and climate claim a macro change select committee with a | :29:17. | :29:21. | |
mentioned the changes to policy having an impact on the edition of | :29:22. | :29:26. | |
the United Kingdom but it comes to investor confidence. The decision to | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
withdraw the funding, ?1 billion that was available for carbon | :29:32. | :29:38. | |
capture capture at the same time as the Secretary of State for Energy | :29:39. | :29:40. | |
and Climate Change was in Paris meeting the high ambition Coalition | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
on behalf of the country at the Paris talks is perhaps the most | :29:45. | :29:53. | |
grades of those changes. Ante with the honourable gentleman and I think | :29:54. | :29:56. | |
him for giving way. Does he agree with me about the fact that that | :29:57. | :30:00. | |
information was extolled to the city of London rather than this place on | :30:01. | :30:05. | |
the same day is a demonstration of where the government's real attitude | :30:06. | :30:10. | |
towards this place is? I think the honourable member for his | :30:11. | :30:13. | |
intervention. I would agree very much about. Iron member sitting on | :30:14. | :30:17. | |
this bench looking through the budget statement and being somewhat | :30:18. | :30:23. | |
relieved that the rumours that were being scrapped to not appear in the | :30:24. | :30:27. | |
budget statement. Low and behold on the announcement of the stock market | :30:28. | :30:34. | |
some moments after the chance to let the chamber is for moving back | :30:35. | :30:37. | |
funding, and confirming to the stock exchange. As I understand it, no | :30:38. | :30:42. | |
greater certainty was provided to become the micro companies that were | :30:43. | :30:49. | |
involved. I thank my honourable friend forgiving way. I would add | :30:50. | :30:52. | |
further to the point that on the morning of this budget I intervened | :30:53. | :30:59. | |
on another member and asked that the Minister despond and get assurances | :31:00. | :31:06. | |
that both of those projects would not be cut, and that it was | :31:07. | :31:11. | |
forthcoming. There was nothing in the ... I think my honourable friend | :31:12. | :31:20. | |
for that and I would agree likewise. I think that the fact that we have | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
differing parties with the same essential view about the way that | :31:25. | :31:29. | |
not only the government has abysmally handled this process, but | :31:30. | :31:33. | |
also how we need to salvage something from the ashes of the | :31:34. | :31:37. | |
carbon capture competition. It strikes me that there is not a huge | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
amount of difference between the proposal in my name and a New Clause | :31:42. | :31:45. | |
seven, and the name of the Labor front benches. The difference that I | :31:46. | :31:49. | |
would say, and we have this discussion on committee, is that it | :31:50. | :31:53. | |
is the inclusion of the devolved administrations in terms of | :31:54. | :31:58. | |
developing strategies and working have been pursuing what would have | :31:59. | :32:03. | |
or should have been the second phase of the carbon capture and storage | :32:04. | :32:09. | |
agreement. They have high ambition in terms of the deployment of carbon | :32:10. | :32:14. | |
capture storage and shared the concerns of many in this house in | :32:15. | :32:18. | |
the way that the government has handled that. In terms of | :32:19. | :32:23. | |
short-sighted decisions, I understand that white rose had | :32:24. | :32:28. | |
substantial European Union funding. The potential in terms of Peterhead | :32:29. | :32:35. | |
in particular to use carbon capture and storage, or potentially carbon | :32:36. | :32:42. | |
capture and utilisation in terms of creating a cycle in terms of | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
enhanced oil recovery, there is a potential to use this resource. That | :32:47. | :32:50. | |
potential has not been lost. The suggestion from the climate change | :32:51. | :32:56. | |
committee that this meeting -- would make meeting our commitments even | :32:57. | :33:01. | |
harder, suggest the need for the strategy that I'm proposing. We have | :33:02. | :33:05. | |
seen the government be all over the shop when it comes to carbon capture | :33:06. | :33:08. | |
and storage. One minute they are for it, the next they are against it. | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
One minute it is not working, and in the next it is promising for the | :33:14. | :33:17. | |
future. Investor confidence, these are severe mixed messages. We need | :33:18. | :33:24. | |
clarity. If there is going to the investment from an industry, which I | :33:25. | :33:28. | |
certainly hope, and I get the general impression that on both | :33:29. | :33:31. | |
sides of this house there are honourable members who wish to see | :33:32. | :33:35. | |
this become a reality in the United Kingdom. We need an equivocal | :33:36. | :33:39. | |
statement from the government, and we need an unequivocal strategy, | :33:40. | :33:44. | |
which is what I am calling for today. There is a time between the | :33:45. | :33:50. | |
utilisation of the infrastructure in the North Sea, and what can be | :33:51. | :33:55. | |
deployed for carbon capture and storage. My New Clause one, in terms | :33:56. | :33:59. | |
of a strategy for decommissioning, I think that that is something that is | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
incumbent upon the government to bring forth. Decommissioning will be | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
one of the sad realities, I think, of the North Sea. It is going to | :34:09. | :34:16. | |
happen. We all hope that it will happen sometime in the future. I | :34:17. | :34:21. | |
think that the government can take steps around about that, the tax | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
cuts that are being called for from the marker from the industry. It is | :34:27. | :34:36. | |
going to come. That is a huge, huge opportunity. There is upwards of 30 | :34:37. | :34:43. | |
billion of pounds worth of work to be done in terms of decommissioning. | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
A large part of that bill will be paid back in terms of reimbursing | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
the companies from previous tax. They have built up the tax to offset | :34:52. | :34:56. | |
against decommissioning cost. Essentially, going for the Treasury | :34:57. | :35:00. | |
will be fitting the bill for a large part of decommissioning. It strikes | :35:01. | :35:06. | |
me, and my party, that we need to ensure that the greatest possible | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
benefit comes to these shores as possible. The marker. The East | :35:12. | :35:21. | |
Coast... Chomping at the bed, quite frankly, to see work come ashore. I | :35:22. | :35:23. | |
know that the shelf platform -- ... He is spot on in relation to... | :35:24. | :35:45. | |
However, when he agreed that with the inclusion of the decommissioning | :35:46. | :35:48. | |
there is also the potential for extra surveys where rigs currently | :35:49. | :35:55. | |
are to investigate gas potential? You already have the infrastructure | :35:56. | :35:59. | |
there to look at subsea coal, for example. There is a large number of | :36:00. | :36:06. | |
things that need to be done before become and wholesale | :36:07. | :36:07. | |
decommissioning. The widest possible consideration before the | :36:08. | :36:11. | |
infrastructure can be used from, that are not in the proposals and | :36:12. | :36:15. | |
possibilities, but they aren't the rest whether it is carbon capture, | :36:16. | :36:20. | |
storage and other things. Whether it is looking to see if there are | :36:21. | :36:26. | |
further hydrocarbon resources that have yet to be discovered there are | :36:27. | :36:30. | |
vast possibilities. While the infrastructure is there, the | :36:31. | :36:33. | |
opportunities for doing other things that there will always remain. Once | :36:34. | :36:37. | |
it is gone, the opportunity is gone. That is incumbent. I think that is | :36:38. | :36:41. | |
something that the Oil and Gas Authority, which is a barge part of | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
this bill, but not the particular aspect have done a lot of work on | :36:47. | :36:50. | |
and are to be commended not in terms of the development. The | :36:51. | :36:54. | |
decommissioning, as I say is a reality. If we are smart, | :36:55. | :37:01. | |
collectively, and we are able to line up the ducks in terms of the | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
supply chain, skills, investments imports, and such like. It is a | :37:06. | :37:10. | |
massive windfall that can be brought back. We have considerable leverage | :37:11. | :37:16. | |
as funders of a large part of this. Through tax receipts offset against | :37:17. | :37:22. | |
previous earnings. We should be looking to maximise that economic | :37:23. | :37:28. | |
potential in the same ways of looking to maximise the economic | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
recovery of the North Sea. I think my honourable friend for giving way. | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
On the point of the opportunity here, does he agree with me that | :37:38. | :37:41. | |
didn't decommissioning goes hand in hand with the critical assessment, | :37:42. | :37:47. | |
evaluation, and management of the infrastructure that surrounds these | :37:48. | :37:50. | |
things to have access to marginal fuel which would not otherwise be | :37:51. | :37:55. | |
available for the critical infrastructure is not kept in place | :37:56. | :37:59. | |
as part of an overall plan with a long-term vision for the energy? I | :38:00. | :38:05. | |
agree with my honourable friend. That is something that the Oil and | :38:06. | :38:08. | |
Gas Authority is set to look at. And something that will be chiefly | :38:09. | :38:15. | |
beneficial to the oil and gas that position going for. That were dusty | :38:16. | :38:21. | |
to take place. We need to aware of, but we also need to remember that | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
this government has a duty to support the will and gas industry at | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
this time, and will reiterate the calls made by myself and others in | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
my party to see substantial movement. It may seem ironic that I | :38:33. | :38:44. | |
am going to move on from talking about how we can best exploit the | :38:45. | :38:47. | |
North Sea to talk about how we can best tackle climate change. Because | :38:48. | :38:54. | |
we have been a major producer and user of hydrocarbons, there is a | :38:55. | :38:58. | |
moral duty upon us to do what we can. I know that New Clause 11, and | :38:59. | :39:06. | |
the name of the right honourable members of among others is on the | :39:07. | :39:12. | |
order paper. It is not something that I think that I would be able to | :39:13. | :39:15. | |
support, but I endorsed possible. I think that it is a big need to do | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
going for. I would rather see is the correct pathway to that, there are a | :39:21. | :39:27. | |
number of new clock for micro classes that deal with the | :39:28. | :39:28. | |
short-term. It strikes me that we I am hopeful that zero carbon future | :39:29. | :39:47. | |
can be achieved, but the pathway to that is not clear to me and I don't | :39:48. | :39:51. | |
think that it would be clear to the government if they were to commence | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
at work. What I would rather see is things that are in the gift of the | :39:56. | :39:58. | |
government at this moment in time if they were to focus on that and | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
deliver upon them, and to act sooner rather than later. The more work | :40:03. | :40:06. | |
that we do not, the less we have to do in the future. It is about timing | :40:07. | :40:13. | |
and priorities. The concept is to be wholeheartedly recommended, and | :40:14. | :40:16. | |
supported. I think in terms of prioritising it. I am not quite on | :40:17. | :40:23. | |
terms with that. I would like to talk about news Clause ten which I | :40:24. | :40:28. | |
was happy to add my support to. I would imagine a number of others who | :40:29. | :40:33. | |
will also talk about it in greater detail. The carbon accounting | :40:34. | :40:41. | |
mechanisms that we have need to be brought into line with what is | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
actually happening and going to happen. The fact that we can get to | :40:45. | :40:49. | |
the stage where upwards of half of our emissions do not properly | :40:50. | :40:55. | |
factored into our carbon accounting means that we are not able to set | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
about in an open and honest way and achieve what we must. Numerous | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
people have said that we need to get serious about this. If we were to | :41:08. | :41:12. | |
get serious about taking the steps that we need to make our | :41:13. | :41:16. | |
contribution to tackling time and change, we absolutely have to be | :41:17. | :41:20. | |
clear about what we are counting. It is the basics of this. The bean | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
counting of climate change might mean seem particularly appealing to | :41:26. | :41:28. | |
sign, but it is the absolute fundamental. If we don't know what | :41:29. | :41:33. | |
the initials are and we are not counting improperly, how do we look | :41:34. | :41:37. | |
to tackle the challenge of reducing them properly? With that, Mr Speaker | :41:38. | :41:48. | |
I will drop my marks. The question is that New Clause three be read a | :41:49. | :41:56. | |
second time. Thank you Mr Speaker. In the absence of alternatives on | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
the side of the House, I am happy to follow the Member for Aberdeen top. | :42:02. | :42:05. | |
I agree with much of what he said about carbon capture, but my | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
comments around New Clause ten. I don't agree with the rest of that | :42:11. | :42:15. | |
new clock and I want to set out with why that is. Let me be clear. I also | :42:16. | :42:24. | |
regard man-made climate change as a clear and present danger. The | :42:25. | :42:29. | |
concerned that I have is that we are increasingly acting in this country | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
unilaterally in terms of what we are doing to fix it. Indeed, the | :42:35. | :42:40. | |
emission trading system was an attempt to have a Pan European | :42:41. | :42:46. | |
solution to a Pan European problem. I don't want us to turn our back on | :42:47. | :42:53. | |
it. I speak also for 900,000 people that are working in energy intensive | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
industries and millions of people that break in and manufacturing | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
industries and his country. The central premise of what I'm going to | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
say is that I don't believe it is possible to rebalance our economy, | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
to have a marked the makers, to do more in the north of the country | :43:12. | :43:17. | |
predicated on the chastity devices that are approximately double up | :43:18. | :43:25. | |
what they are in continental Europe. -- electricity. This morning, at our | :43:26. | :43:41. | |
energy intensive industries are paying for P per unit. Or nine | :43:42. | :43:53. | |
keepers unit. -- 9p. The gap between the UK and EU electricity prices is | :43:54. | :43:59. | |
80 to 90%. I could just come back from aim and people in the north of | :44:00. | :44:07. | |
this country. They want to see this established in the north that they | :44:08. | :44:10. | |
cannot see on the basis of differentially higher devices stop | :44:11. | :44:22. | |
yellow. If you talk about... The government that | :44:23. | :44:26. | |
... Also there is a factor in relations that our European | :44:27. | :44:35. | |
competitors that they put. The cost generally are, by and | :44:36. | :44:47. | |
large, the same varying from country to country. He has made two points. | :44:48. | :44:55. | |
First is about the price for. I don't support policy in that area. | :44:56. | :45:00. | |
The consequent of policy in that area is that we are not importing | :45:01. | :45:03. | |
electricity that is being produced in the continent by power stations | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
that don't pay the carbon tax at the level that we do. That is no sort of | :45:09. | :45:18. | |
economic or industrial policy. On the second point, I have forgotten. | :45:19. | :45:23. | |
If you could just reminding. The distribution of the cost is more on | :45:24. | :45:26. | |
the consumer then on the member state. Germany. That is true | :45:27. | :45:32. | |
particularly of Germany. Apparently, I invited expert, but I hear Mrs. | :45:33. | :45:39. | |
Talking about that. There is a state eight issue. -- aid. They can charge | :45:40. | :45:50. | |
such a differential, and apparently began. I agree that it is | :45:51. | :46:00. | |
unsatisfactory. I talk a little bit about the 900,000 jobs in energy | :46:01. | :46:03. | |
intensive energy for micro industry that we have to be cognizant of as a | :46:04. | :46:14. | |
new Ford. Steel, aluminium, what is left of the aluminium industry. | :46:15. | :46:17. | |
There were three smelters in this country until the year ago. It is | :46:18. | :46:23. | |
not one left in Scotland, and that is under consultation for closure. | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
This stuff matters. Of course, so scrimmages. Our only point is that | :46:29. | :46:34. | |
we have to a balance. The people that paper that balance cannot be | :46:35. | :46:37. | |
those that work in some those industries. I have four points that | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
I would like to put in front of the House and terms of what I believe is | :46:44. | :46:48. | |
as different in approach between the UK with our climate budget and | :46:49. | :46:53. | |
climate change act in the EU. The first one, Paris. People talk of the | :46:54. | :46:58. | |
Paris agreement in December as a time. In many ways it was. I | :46:59. | :47:04. | |
personally don't believe that the agreement will be made. I think that | :47:05. | :47:11. | |
it is an optimistic analysis. The key thing that we need to understand | :47:12. | :47:17. | |
as legislators is that the European Union, the UK did not have a | :47:18. | :47:23. | |
submission. Europe did. Europe apostle exhibition was to reduce | :47:24. | :47:31. | |
carbon emissions by 40% the UK is part of that, so therefore complicit | :47:32. | :47:34. | |
and that is what we had to do as well. And yet, our commitment could | :47:35. | :47:38. | |
we have legislated for it in this house is to reduce emissions by... I | :47:39. | :47:45. | |
think the honourable gentleman for giving way. I know that he is | :47:46. | :47:49. | |
talking about individual submissions and European wide emissions. | :47:50. | :47:59. | |
The former acute problem that this government has is about the problem | :48:00. | :48:06. | |
of Chinese dumping. That is a far more serious issue than anything | :48:07. | :48:13. | |
coming out of the European Union. I agree that Chinese dumping is at | :48:14. | :48:16. | |
issue. I agree that the business grades are an issue, but I think | :48:17. | :48:19. | |
that he is wrong if he says that energy prices are not also an issue. | :48:20. | :48:24. | |
He is wrong to say that. One of the pieces of evidence of that being | :48:25. | :48:28. | |
wrong isn't the steel industry in the aluminium industry is not under | :48:29. | :48:33. | |
such pressure in parts of Europe as it is under here. He will be | :48:34. | :48:40. | |
contradicting the comments from others where the two primary issues | :48:41. | :48:50. | |
pertaining... And Chinese dumping. I am sure that he's going to get back | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
to the point as it relates to EU ET as, but that is the primary concern | :48:55. | :49:00. | |
from the industry itself. I think that his position is an often, | :49:01. | :49:04. | |
because I immigrate with them that the MES data has stated that | :49:05. | :49:13. | |
something is important. I have in my office a report from the aluminium | :49:14. | :49:19. | |
industry. It is the prices. This is not a massively controversial point, | :49:20. | :49:24. | |
I didn't think, if you are in an industry which uses a significant | :49:25. | :49:27. | |
amount of electricity it is not a competitive advantage if you if it | :49:28. | :49:34. | |
costs more than other people. Tony something is a more significant | :49:35. | :49:37. | |
thing, I agree with that, but we are talking about economics. -- Chinese | :49:38. | :49:47. | |
dumping. That happens at the margin. If we are intended to have a marked | :49:48. | :49:53. | |
the makers predicated on high electricity prices, it is going to | :49:54. | :49:58. | |
be tough. I was talking about the parents I in DC emissions, I wanted | :49:59. | :50:07. | |
to say that the cost submission for that is something like 50% less | :50:08. | :50:12. | |
onerous than our own climate change act. When I first saw that I thought | :50:13. | :50:18. | |
it was on. I did not understand why that would be. Why was it? Had to be | :50:19. | :50:26. | |
a light allow that to happen? We have this stringent, rigorous, good | :50:27. | :50:31. | |
process in many ways of carbon budget starting down and missions in | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
all that was about. And yet, we go into the European submission INDC | :50:36. | :50:43. | |
for something so feeble. The difficulty is that even the | :50:44. | :50:52. | |
submission to the Europeans put in, even though it is so much lower than | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
the UK submission is not allocated by countries. That process starting | :50:58. | :51:04. | |
this year, or maybe next year. It seems to me to be very feeble. The | :51:05. | :51:09. | |
second thing is the European emissions trading system in the | :51:10. | :51:15. | |
first place. Reason that New Clause ten has been deemed necessary is | :51:16. | :51:23. | |
because it is felt that this is not enough for carbon emissions. The | :51:24. | :51:26. | |
price of carbon that is implicit within that is too low, something | :51:27. | :51:32. | |
like 5 euros a time versus something like 23 euros a tonne. In 2013, they | :51:33. | :51:40. | |
debated this part in the European Parliament. There was a proposal for | :51:41. | :51:44. | |
the European Parliament to actually Paris based like the EU emission | :51:45. | :51:51. | |
trading system in a way that would be meaningful, and prevented the | :51:52. | :51:54. | |
need for a carbon price for in the UK. That properly reflected where | :51:55. | :52:01. | |
the market needs to be in order to drive actions, which is why this | :52:02. | :52:08. | |
amendment has come for. The European Parliament did not put that | :52:09. | :52:11. | |
commitment through, and I think that it does not put food in his funds to | :52:12. | :52:18. | |
vested in interest. I think that that is a pity. The consequence of | :52:19. | :52:23. | |
that is that we are here now. Saying that this emissions trading system | :52:24. | :52:31. | |
is not fit for purpose. It was intended in the climate change act | :52:32. | :52:36. | |
of being a way of controlling generated power, it doesn't work. | :52:37. | :52:40. | |
The urgings of indifferent. Our answer is not to turn our back. The | :52:41. | :52:53. | |
parties on the other side, those of the deeply committed to the European | :52:54. | :52:59. | |
ideal. This is odd that they are turning their back on this European | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
solution. In the time-outs remaining for me, -- time dots. I find that | :53:04. | :53:17. | |
odd. The third is to talk about that is country based controlling. Since | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
1990, Austria has increased their emissions. Ireland has increased by | :53:24. | :53:31. | |
some number as well. If an organisation such as the eat you | :53:32. | :53:34. | |
were serious about getting to grips with admissions -- EQ. -- EU. We are | :53:35. | :53:49. | |
seeing dysfunctional member state behaviour in terms of certain | :53:50. | :53:55. | |
countries building new coal power stations at Germain: | :53:56. | :54:09. | |
that is not indicative of the book to understand the counsellor has to | :54:10. | :54:15. | |
come and all of this. Mr Deputy Speaker, I have a node that has come | :54:16. | :54:22. | |
to me saying to wrap up. -- note. I would just finish by saying that it | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
is not a question of agreeing that climate change is a clear and | :54:28. | :54:30. | |
present danger, but we must bring the rest of the world with us. By | :54:31. | :54:35. | |
turning our back on things at the European ETF system, that is doing | :54:36. | :54:40. | |
the opposite of that. By allowing the EU to put a submission into the | :54:41. | :54:46. | |
Paris that was feeble, we are turning our back. We are not going | :54:47. | :54:52. | |
to solve global warming by fixing our 1.5% of total global emissions. | :54:53. | :55:02. | |
I rise to move a number of new clauses that relates to a number of | :55:03. | :55:04. | |
aspects of this bill. Starting with New Clause seven, | :55:05. | :55:21. | |
which we are moving this afternoon. Honourable members will see that it | :55:22. | :55:24. | |
is based similar to New Clause three and moved by the honourable member | :55:25. | :55:29. | |
for Aberdeen South. It is a Clause that I think that both opposition | :55:30. | :55:35. | |
parties today feel very strongly about in terms of the need to | :55:36. | :55:41. | |
develop a systematic strategy for carbon capture and storage, which we | :55:42. | :55:46. | |
do not have at present. We heard to today several things. The government | :55:47. | :55:58. | |
reference carbon capture and the least cost routeing decarbonization. | :55:59. | :56:02. | |
They will clearly, surgically, according the advice of the | :56:03. | :56:05. | |
committee has to do think carefully about this. Since CCS and other | :56:06. | :56:16. | |
things suggest implementations of least cost. Indeed, a shameful | :56:17. | :56:25. | |
pulley of the two CCS pilot projects mentioned by the honourable member | :56:26. | :56:31. | |
for Aberdeen South, in essence represents a missed investment | :56:32. | :56:40. | |
opportunity. That cost is an important moment of our approach to | :56:41. | :56:43. | |
a future CCS strategy. It is important to be clear that the | :56:44. | :56:47. | |
cancellation of the project is not mean the end of the CCS. We will | :56:48. | :56:53. | |
have to bring about large scale CCS sooner than a number of people | :56:54. | :57:02. | |
consider. That is especially true because CCS relates not only to | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
energy production, but too energy intensive industries and other | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
intensive carpet industry. The cancellation of CCS pilots is that | :57:12. | :57:16. | |
we would have to importing technology from the rest of the | :57:17. | :57:19. | |
world instead of having leading technology have the pilot gives | :57:20. | :57:20. | |
Ghana had. I agree with him. Ten he tell me how | :57:21. | :57:31. | |
likely do think it will be that any private money is ever going be | :57:32. | :57:35. | |
forthcoming, given the rational manner in which the funding to | :57:36. | :57:42. | |
projects were abandoned? The honourable member makes an important | :57:43. | :57:47. | |
point, and indeed, the need to have a carbon capture strategy, which | :57:48. | :57:50. | |
actually sets out a longer-term route to how we go about carbon | :57:51. | :57:56. | |
capture and storage, would be an important part of that process. The | :57:57. | :58:05. | |
honourable member also makes the point that indeed, the cancellation | :58:06. | :58:10. | |
of this pilot projects has caused quite a pullover, future and the | :58:11. | :58:14. | |
stability of carbon capture and storage projects in the future, | :58:15. | :58:18. | |
which is despite the fact that they are now getting under way across the | :58:19. | :58:24. | |
world. So, it is important to reflect on how in a new CCS strategy | :58:25. | :58:30. | |
we are to import that technology, and how as much as possible the rest | :58:31. | :58:33. | |
of the supply chain stay in the UK, in particular, substantial | :58:34. | :58:38. | |
development and intellectual property gained from those projects, | :58:39. | :58:42. | |
the White Rose and other projects, must be retained in the UK, for the | :58:43. | :58:46. | |
use of CCF developments. All that should be part of a strategy that we | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
simply do not have at the moment. Having a strategy in place would | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
enable us to recover substantially from the event setback caused by the | :58:56. | :58:59. | |
cancellation of those pilot projects in the amendment calls for such a | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
strategy to be articulated in the early stage, and for us to be clear | :59:04. | :59:08. | |
between ourselves about how exactly and why we're keeping CCF on track | :59:09. | :59:12. | |
for the future. New Clause eight, we have also heard about, it relates to | :59:13. | :59:21. | |
the undertakings that won't provided in part one of the energy act, 2013, | :59:22. | :59:28. | |
about setting a target for decarbonization by 2030. Part one of | :59:29. | :59:32. | |
the act makes it clear that the Secretary of State has... Is no | :59:33. | :59:40. | |
greater than the maximum admitted level of the decarbonization target | :59:41. | :59:45. | |
rate. That is a clear undertaking to set a decarbonization target range, | :59:46. | :59:47. | |
requiring Secretary of State to take related actions. As I mentioned, the | :59:48. | :59:54. | |
target is already there, and has been there since the end of 2013, | :59:55. | :00:03. | |
and it was passed... But what the target range it should be, and under | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
the legislation, it is a to ministers to clear up that matter. | :00:08. | :00:12. | |
One may say it is not a small matter since it is within the gift of | :00:13. | :00:15. | |
ministers to decide whether the target for decarbonization as strong | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
or not. During the discussions that took place during the process of | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
that legislation, the energy act of 2013, members across the committee | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
envisaged that the target should be strong and aligned with carbon | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
production contribution. Unfortunately during the passage of | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
this bill, and another place, we heard in a letter to the opposition | :00:37. | :00:42. | |
from the Minister that he stated powers taken within the energy act | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
2013, which is the Secretary of State the ability to set a | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
decarbonization target range from the electricity sector for your, not | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
before 2030. This allows a target to be set on the same date after the | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
fifth carbon budget, which must be set up for the end of June 20 16. | :00:59. | :01:05. | |
Measured... Is the and intention this government is not exercise his | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
power. This position is consistent with our manifesto pledge not to | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
support additional distorting and expensive power sector targets. This | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
is not an additional distorting target. It is a target within the | :01:18. | :01:25. | |
bill, 2013, and indeed, it is clearly incumbent on the government | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
to take action on the decarbonization target range to the | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
Secretary of legislation, and it is extremely disappointing that the | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
Minister indicated that they were not going to exercise this power. | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
The New Clause would provide the Secretary of State and said | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
decarbonization target, and should discharge section one of the 2013 | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
act. This is, and I think honourable members would agree, very important, | :01:51. | :01:58. | |
such targets... That is what the amendment seeks to do. New Clause | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
nine addresses an aspect of the de-carbonized future, and looking at | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
the perverse result of the first to capacity auctions in procuring and | :02:08. | :02:18. | |
indeed not procuring any long-term new large generating plant. And | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
procuring almost the only long-term outcome of diesel's generators. | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
Gigawatts of generators procured, more polluting than coal, which the | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
secretary has said to take up the system by 2025. The New Clause adds | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
to the energy act of 2013, relating to fossil fuels, which... That plant | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
must adhere to certain conditions, if the contract is to be granted. | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
One of those conditions the emissions performance standard, and | :02:54. | :02:56. | |
section 57 of the energy act, and content to target or a formula that | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
Undersecretary -- subsequent legislation, it set grams, and this | :03:02. | :03:08. | |
Clause clearly doesn't not seek to capture gas, because new plans for | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
gas come in at something like 370 grams, and that emissions | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
performance standard. What this New Clause refers to is diesel coming | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
into the provision of electricity, particularly in the context of what | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
is happened in those two previous capacity auctions. Those diesel | :03:29. | :03:34. | |
act... Bare below the size which could pass court, but they are the | :03:35. | :03:44. | |
most dirty, of various energy generation devices. Because diesel | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
is exempt from EPS levels, because of the individual size of the | :03:50. | :03:52. | |
reciprocal dating sector, it is curious that we have obtained a | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
substantial proportion of long-term capacity payments coming into the | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
system, and of course, one reason that diesel sectors have been able | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
to get to capacity auctions is not because diesel sector is particular | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
cheap to run, it is in part because we would receive a substantial | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
underwriting until recently, from HM Treasury, through the enterprise | :04:11. | :04:13. | |
investment scheme. Payments for the establishment of this plane, | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
originally, it appears that the payments of sector... But of course, | :04:17. | :04:23. | |
they have been used for other purposes in the capacity auctions. | :04:24. | :04:25. | |
Although that group has been changed in the Autumn Statement, the most | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
polluting generating plants have managed to get to lots of subsidies | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
for generating and cutting through the capacity auction process as | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
well. That is not only that climate policy, but bad public policy in | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
general. It was discussed during the committee stages of the bill, and | :04:42. | :04:44. | |
the government recent Lee made a statement on changes to the capacity | :04:45. | :04:51. | |
auctions and although as they suggested the proposals to change | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
the air quality regulations under the large plant directive that might | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
include diesel sex, they suggested these changes might not occur until | :04:58. | :05:02. | |
2019 at the earliest. Too late for the next series of capacity | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
auctions. This amendment, New Clause, seeks the straightforward | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
route to make sure that diesel is not the perverse diesel it is now. | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
New Clause ten looks further towards the Fed carbon budget, but perhaps | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
no much for... Would have to do for -- decide on the carbon budget, it | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
seeks to strengthen the intention of the government to use its powers to | :05:25. | :05:27. | |
ensure we keep on track, and by outlawing the use of private trader | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
sector credits, and the Honorable member for Morgan made some very | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
valuable points in the process discussing this New Clause ten for | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
the future. Honorable members will recall that when the bill arrived in | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
the House from the other place, it had a net Clause 80 of the energy | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
bill seeking to simple by the count in the UK's carbon budget under the | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
2008 Clause, which was removed during the passage of the building | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
to committee stage. This Clause seeks a different route, of more | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
effective carbon accounting in the fifth carbon budget, and beyond. It | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
seeks to make the government directly accountable for emissions | :06:10. | :06:12. | |
in the sectors covered by the EU emissions trading scheme, by | :06:13. | :06:15. | |
determining whether the UK is staying within it's not sure carbon | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
budgets. The EU BTS covers admissions and the electricity | :06:21. | :06:22. | |
sector, and currently the accounting regulations another -- allow the | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
government to ignore these, when determining whether the carbon | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
budgets have been met. As currently designed, the UK carbon budgets | :06:32. | :06:34. | |
failed to provide a framework with all this investor confidence in the | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
UK for that reason, in particular, there is no assurance that the | :06:40. | :06:42. | |
government will do the necessary measures in place to ensure that the | :06:43. | :06:45. | |
power sector is larger and de-carbonized by 2030. To the fact | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
that the cover change committee has repeatedly indicated that the power | :06:50. | :06:56. | |
sector must reduce emissions by 2030 in order to maintain the cost | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
effective trajectory to our 2050 climate target. If those rules | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
change, the committee has indicated... For the first time | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
ever, the committee will be able to recommend a budget, that reflects | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
the cost-effective pathway of UK omissions economy wide. Animation, | :07:15. | :07:22. | |
this differ from the original Clause, and a very cocky respect, | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
and that is while Clause prevented any carbon units in the EU trading | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
scheme for affecting the UK carbon account, this new amendment | :07:32. | :07:34. | |
specifically prevents the carbon trading behaviour of private firms, | :07:35. | :07:40. | |
from affecting the national Council. This is the issue that currently | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
allows the government to ignore it omissions in the sector under this | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
new amendment, which would obtain the option of counselling carbon | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
allowances to offset them at a state level. This offsetting option would | :07:55. | :08:06. | |
also of course strengthen the issue in the EU commissions trading | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
scheme, if exercise. Finally, Mr Deputy Speaker, amendment 47 which I | :08:12. | :08:19. | |
am moving to today, reminds us of the first part of our bill, where | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
there is wide consensus for change, as far as North Sea oil is | :08:24. | :08:31. | |
concerned, it seeks to gives -- give the office new oversight to ensure | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
that decommissioning is used to the best advantage in the North Sea, and | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
is not operate in the interest of those who might be involved in | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
commissioning, but in the long-term interests of the cooperative use of | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
infrastructures. On... For the benefit of production, not only a | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
future more marginal filter for the next period, but also possibly for | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
the future use of the North Sea, as one of the world's finest | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
repositories, for carbon capture and storage is under way, it is an | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
amendment that would be very important to add to the arsenal of | :09:06. | :09:11. | |
the office for oil and gas and I hope the Minister will be forward in | :09:12. | :09:18. | |
accepting that. Ed Miliband. I rise to speak to the news Clause 11, | :09:19. | :09:26. | |
which stands in my name, and another friend, and that another five | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
parties across the South, in order to thank the Honorable mumbles Fort | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
lawn still, Brighton Pavilion, and essentials of it, and North Ipswich, | :09:36. | :09:42. | |
and I also want to thank my front bench and also Baroness Worthington | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
and the other place that has supported advice on this issue. Mr | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
Deputy Speaker, this New Clause will put the commitment in the Paris | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
climate change equipment 20 omissions, and to our domestic law. | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
But the climate change committee to advise when it should be achieved. I | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
believe this is a right thing to do, because of what the signs -- science | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
tells us. Science is clear that we will need to get 20 omissions as the | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
world early in the second half of this century. It is worth saying Mr | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
Deputy Speaker, in the context of the sites to remind the House that | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
the context of this debate is. Just a few facts about what we know from | :10:24. | :10:30. | |
recent scientific analysis, that 2015 was the hottest year on record. | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
That each of the last five months, the record for global temperatures | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
has been broken in every month with February being an awful | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
record-breaker, and then this other fact Mr Deputy Speaker, that | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
atmospheric concentrations of CO2, and it is hard to get your head | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
around this, are now higher than they have been for at least 1 | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
million years. Because that is what the scientists tell us. That is the | :10:59. | :11:02. | |
sense of urgency that I think we should have about this issue. I know | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
that is shared on all sides of the House. My proposal makes economic | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
moral, and political sense. It makes economic sense because you have to | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
get to zero omissions eventually. Since we know it will be tough, we | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
need to start planning now. We already know some of the tools that | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
we will need. We do not know all of them, but we need clean energy | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
supplies, we need a revolution in the House -- housing sector. We | :11:32. | :11:39. | |
need... We need carbon capture and storage, so we can trap any | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
omissions, and we will need reforestation, and will lead other | :11:45. | :11:47. | |
technologies in the early stages of development. Here's the crucial | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
point, Mr Deputy Speaker. We need to start the work now, so we can make | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
zero happened at least cost. I believe the economic case is proven | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
by the support we have in the business community for this | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
proposal. I went to pick up event, cantilever, Kingfisher, and the | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
broader business Coalition for their backing. It makes economic sense. I | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
believe it makes moral sense as well, because we know zero omissions | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
will be necessary. It will be frankly irresponsible to pretend it | :12:21. | :12:23. | |
is not. I think future generations will look very badly on a generation | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
that stuck its head in the sand, and refuse to plan ahead. And, Mr Deputy | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
Speaker, and makes political sense as well. Because, we were all very | :12:35. | :12:40. | |
pleased by the Paris agreement, and I say that is shared on all sides of | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
the House, but the danger is that we lose momentum and go backwards. | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
There are straws that this may happen. We need to build on the | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
momentum and not wander. I want you to close the gap, and this is where | :12:53. | :12:55. | |
the honourable gentleman is right. We need to close the gap between the | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
ambitions of Paris to keep warming to know more than 155 degrees, and | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
the reality of the current pledges, which are off-track. Now, here's the | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
other thing to say to all members of this house. We can make a | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
difference. We maybe able only 1.5% of global omissions, but look at the | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
experience of the climate change. That is what the Honorable gentleman | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
and I discussed outside of the House, look at the spirit of the | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
climate change act. I party support in to one -- 2008. It did push | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
others to follow. Not maybe as much as we wanted, but it did push others | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
to follow. I just want to make one point to the honourable gentleman he | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
speaks to this what national party. He's right of course about the | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
short-term. And we need to get the short-term right, but the long-term | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
effects and short-term effects. Just like the 80% target that we put in | :13:50. | :13:56. | |
to -- 2008, if you'd like to show discussions, of all parties, to | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
account, so it would be the case of a put zero omissions and we know | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
that will have to be the backstop, my cases that we might as well get | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
on with it. I will give way. Thank you. I have enormous respect for my | :14:13. | :14:18. | |
honourable member, and I applaud your positive steps and everything | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
that happened at the climate change act, but we do have to be | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
economically realistic as well. I do wonder whether this is the right | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
time, and this might be better go to climate change committee to have a | :14:31. | :14:33. | |
closer look at this, because we are in the process of agreeing the fifth | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
carbon budget, and perhaps all energy would be put into that. At | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
the end of her point makes a case I agree with. Which is that my | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
proposal is deliberately pragmatic. It is to put zero omissions into | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
law, but the date to be decided by government on the basis of advice | :14:51. | :14:53. | |
from climate change committee, and I think that is the right, pragmatic, | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
and least cost way of proceeding, because we need the advice of the | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
experts in who appointed them with cross party support, and we need to | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
get them to advise us. Mr Deputy Speaker, since I put forward this | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
proposal three months ago, I'm delighted to say that very | :15:13. | :15:15. | |
constructive discussions with the government. I'm not going to | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
anticipate the reaction of the Minister of which you want at this | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
debate. I do want to put on record my thanks to Secretary of State, to | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
the Minister, and indeed the Minister of the Cabinet office for | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
their willingness to engage with me this issue. I do believe, and very | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
much hope that we can move this idea forward in the months ahead. I think | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
we can demonstrate once again the cross party commitment for this | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
shared, by the vast majority members of this house, to tackle the threat | :15:44. | :15:47. | |
of climate change, and I look forward to the Minister's responded | :15:48. | :15:57. | |
her report. -- response. I have new clauses, eight, six, and five. They | :15:58. | :16:04. | |
are covered by other new clauses before the House. It is not my | :16:05. | :16:09. | |
intention to go to a division, because we lead in the direction. | :16:10. | :16:19. | |
With the question of carbon capture, I intervened on the envelope -- | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
honourable gentleman speaking, the term that I'd used in relation to | :16:25. | :16:27. | |
the government's decision to pull the funding from projects was | :16:28. | :16:34. | |
rational. I hope I was not kind to the government in saying that, if it | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
wasn't irrational, that must've been ideological, in any event, it | :16:40. | :16:44. | |
certainly did not make any sense. That was a competition that was | :16:45. | :16:47. | |
running, and the point of which we withdrew the funding, and the | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
competition to run for a little bit competition to run for a little bit | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
longer, who knows, that debt to the conclusion that would be no more | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
money to be spent. The truth of the matter is that we'll never know. Was | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
irrational, because of the impact it will have for the future. When it | :17:07. | :17:14. | |
comes to getting your own carbon capture and storage industry up and | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
running in this country. As the honourable gentleman from the | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
opposition said, this is something where work is being done, and | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
inevitably you will not end up playing catch-up and importing | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
expertise but could've generated here. Who is going to be responsible | :17:35. | :17:43. | |
for shareholders? Who's going to suggest that you put money into | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
carbon capture and storage in this country in the future? Is the | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
ultimate failure of every policy. I think we have got to the point that | :17:53. | :18:00. | |
not understanding the terms of the amendments and the new clauses, I | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
frankly wonder whether it is now worth calling for, because in fact, | :18:05. | :18:11. | |
even if you had new government commitment, who on earth is going to | :18:12. | :18:14. | |
believe that given the weight that they have believed thus far? The | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
honourable member from Aberdeen South made that point that it is a | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
synergy between carbon capture and storage, and the issues around | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
decommissioning in the North Sea. It is of course, the case for some | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
years now that the technology that is used in carbon capturing and | :18:33. | :18:43. | |
storage... Using gas to extract oil from other parts of the existing | :18:44. | :18:49. | |
substantial infrastructure that is there. It brightens my heart that | :18:50. | :18:56. | |
the OG goes from strength to strength, and it is a project I have | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
followed closely, from its inception from the work of the word | :19:01. | :19:08. | |
commission, and into the shadow authority. In order to get the | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
maximum benefit for that, it will of course be necessary for the budget | :19:14. | :19:16. | |
to get on now, use the powers that we have given them already, and to | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
come forward with the strategy, it is going to be making these things | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
happen. Of course, in order for there to be a strategy, the bill has | :19:28. | :19:33. | |
to be survivable. The very real danger is that because of the age of | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
the assets on the North Sea, especially in the north North Sea, | :19:40. | :19:47. | |
we could see critical mass tip over and, not literally, and for them to | :19:48. | :19:57. | |
be rushed to decommission. That rushed to decommission could be | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
back, for the economy, and the northern Wales. It would be tragic | :20:04. | :20:10. | |
also, if that decommissioning means the infrastructure was removed, | :20:11. | :20:13. | |
which means that the opportunities to develop carbon capturing and | :20:14. | :20:24. | |
storage will need to be lost. I will give way. The point I made about the | :20:25. | :20:32. | |
large part of the tax liability for decommissioning following the | :20:33. | :20:34. | |
Treasury in terms of paying the back, if there is that rushed to | :20:35. | :20:38. | |
decommissioning, as he is mentioned, it will mean that the Chancellor | :20:39. | :20:40. | |
will find it more difficult to meet its fiscal target, as he has to hand | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
out cash. Will he agree that there needs to be government to delay that | :20:45. | :20:51. | |
happening? We have seen tap input from the North Sea fall off a cliff, | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
and if it doesn't now follow this, I cannot remember the figures exactly, | :20:57. | :20:59. | |
but I seem to recall that there was something in the region of ?20 | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
billion, set aside to provide for. That is the future of liar -- | :21:05. | :21:10. | |
liability. If the liability work to come to the left of the sheet, then | :21:11. | :21:17. | |
it would be the double whammy for the Treasury. Not only losing the | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
incumbent, but suddenly liable for a expenditure at an earlier stage. In | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
fact, the real significant event in that regard would feel it is not | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
here tonight, it will be Wednesday when the Chancellor comes forward | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
with his budget. The Minister in the Secretary of State will have also | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
heard that the measured and well-thought-out requests come from | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
oil and gas UK, and I trust that even at this stage, they will be | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
using them for every piece of influence they have to ensure that | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
as much as -- of these requests are actually delivered, when the | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
Chancellor stands up. The right honourable gentleman moved who stood | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
close bloated voodoo Vicky is absolutely right and has brought | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
this forward. This is future proof, if you like, of the commitments, but | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
indeed, given the very substantial commitment to the Secretary of state | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
herself showed in relation to the House negotiations, I think that | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
this would be a very suitable way in which that commitment was given some | :22:32. | :22:42. | |
lived by this house. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I want to speak | :22:43. | :22:45. | |
mainly to New Clause 12, which stands in my name on the need for | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
strategy for a just transition away from fossil fuels and towards 100% | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
renewable energy. I also want to highlight a few of the other | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
amendments that I support, and this particular bill. I want to speak in | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
favour of New Clause 11, tabled by the former secretary of state, and | :23:04. | :23:07. | |
thank you very much for all of the very constructive work that he has | :23:08. | :23:16. | |
been doing in terms of promoting this idea about zero omissions. This | :23:17. | :23:18. | |
puts one really crucial part of the Paris climate agreement into UK law. | :23:19. | :23:21. | |
It is not convoluted, it doesn't make it clear that globally, it must | :23:22. | :23:24. | |
meet net zero omissions in the second half of the century. Many | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
argue that this long-term goal should have been stronger, including | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
through a specific reference to phasing out fossil fuels. | :23:33. | :23:34. | |
Nonetheless, it seems immensely reasonable for the UK government to | :23:35. | :23:37. | |
set the date for zero omissions, on the advice from the committee on | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
climate change. Very much to seem a win-win here, economically and | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
environmentally to have that date set, so that we can have a clarity | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
of direction of travail, and investors. -- travel. I look forward | :23:51. | :24:01. | |
to hearing the response when they come to speak later on. Just a few | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
words as well, Mr Speaker, about New Clause ten, or carbon accounting, | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
and the ET as. Again, I support this amendment, it would meet the UK | :24:12. | :24:14. | |
taking responsibility for making our own carbon emission cuts, and | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
another immensely reasonable proposal. I think the need for that | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
kind of change is undermined by the recent, somewhat incredible claims | :24:24. | :24:26. | |
that a new dash for gas would somehow be compatible... The UK's | :24:27. | :24:35. | |
energy potential is vast. The cost of solar and wind power is falling, | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
and the need for the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves to get more | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
mainstream by the week. There is no longer a case for using the EU | :24:44. | :24:46. | |
emissions trading system as an excuse for not meeting our own | :24:47. | :24:49. | |
carbon budgets by cutting our own omissions here in the UK. The global | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
carbon budget is rapidly shrinking, and there's simply no room for free | :24:55. | :24:57. | |
riders. Adding the UK should be leading the race to a zero carbon | :24:58. | :25:04. | |
economy, not weaseling our way out of making a fair contribution. And | :25:05. | :25:07. | |
that is why New Clause ten is so important. Turning now to my New | :25:08. | :25:10. | |
Clause 12 on a just transition, this is another aspect of the Paris | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
climate agreement that should become a central tenant of the UK's climate | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
and energy policy. Just transition is about essential steps a country | :25:20. | :25:23. | |
needs to take to transform into a zero carbon economy. In a way that | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
creates new jobs, and by supporting and engaging workers and communities | :25:28. | :25:30. | |
currently reliant on high carbon sectors. I will give way. I'm | :25:31. | :25:34. | |
thankful for giving way. They should think that the German strategy, I | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
think I pronounced it correctly, offers a way forward for the UK? | :25:40. | :25:46. | |
Fossil fuels to renewable energy? Thank you for his intervention, | :25:47. | :25:49. | |
added to agree with them. That doesn't point to a very helpful | :25:50. | :25:56. | |
direction of travel. As you would expect, -- does. At the EU, and | :25:57. | :26:03. | |
globally. During the Paris climate talks, unions made an incredibly | :26:04. | :26:07. | |
powerful case for stronger ambition, and faster action to cut a mission | :26:08. | :26:11. | |
and make this transition away from fossil fuels. Central to that is the | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
huge opportunity for job creation in new low carbon industries. I spoke a | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
moment ago about win-win, it should be a win win win, because of the | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
jobs as well as the economy, and advantages, because of a clear | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
direction for this transition. The European trade Union Federation | :26:31. | :26:36. | |
representing 90 trade unions firms 39 countries was really vocal on | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
this issue. As... In a way that benefits the whole of society and is | :26:44. | :26:48. | |
not simply pile B costs on the most privileged. They define the elements | :26:49. | :26:51. | |
of this, some of which are incorporated into my memory, in | :26:52. | :26:56. | |
terms of participation, because consistent and strong worker | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
participation is essential, so that a change can be managed in a | :27:01. | :27:01. | |
socially acceptable way. This is not about whether the embark | :27:02. | :27:18. | |
on a transition, it is about a proactive approach to ensure that | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
that transition happens in a way that protects, maintained, and | :27:23. | :27:24. | |
creates decent jobs and wages. Its looks at what this means in | :27:25. | :27:30. | |
practice. Essentially a government led active, education, training and | :27:31. | :27:37. | |
skills policy. A social safety net through active Labor market | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
policies, strong social support production and measures. There is no | :27:42. | :27:44. | |
lack of clarity on what this might look like. At the minute, but is | :27:45. | :27:54. | |
sadly lacking is an inclusive plan of action. Thanks to the effort of | :27:55. | :28:02. | |
trade unions, the... This commitment needs to be delivered in a | :28:03. | :28:05. | |
meaningful way, otherwise it is just words on paper. I think that the | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
same is urgent and needed in the UK. Although we will also need a first | :28:09. | :28:11. | |
step. That is the commitment to the principle of the transition as well. | :28:12. | :28:15. | |
Because what I described here is fairly straightforward, I hope that | :28:16. | :28:21. | |
the government can support at part of my amendment. My New Clause 12 | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
also requires the Secretary of state to be clearer about the existing | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
reserves that should remain unexploited. The energy minister | :28:32. | :28:38. | |
insert a peek you in a a few months ago saying that the international | :28:39. | :28:44. | |
agency has suggested that around a third of them are available under 2 | :28:45. | :28:53. | |
degrees scenario I would be really grateful at the department could get | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
an up-to-date figure globally and for the UK so that we have a bit | :28:58. | :29:02. | |
more clarity on that. New research found globally that 82% of fossil | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
fool reserves must be left underground. Of course, Mark Carney | :29:08. | :29:13. | |
has also recently been warning that the vast majority of fossil fuels | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
are essentially unprintable. The government, as we know high sign-up | :29:19. | :29:21. | |
to the Paris agreement which goes even further, especially the 1.5 | :29:22. | :29:26. | |
degrees goal. As delegates and pairs heard, that is essentially the | :29:27. | :29:29. | |
balance between life and death for many citizens and poorer countries | :29:30. | :29:32. | |
that are the most vulnerable impacts -- to the impacts of of climate | :29:33. | :29:40. | |
change. We needed up to date change and concrete policies. My New Clause | :29:41. | :29:45. | |
also requires the government to redirect to alternatives. It seems | :29:46. | :29:53. | |
to have a particular meaning only to energy circles. This meaning, allows | :29:54. | :29:57. | |
them to claim that they don't have any subsidies. By using any other | :29:58. | :30:02. | |
definition, the WTO does this is clearly a nonsense. For example,... | :30:03. | :30:15. | |
That is almost twice the financial support and provides renewable | :30:16. | :30:17. | |
energy providers and that urgently needs to change. The barriers to | :30:18. | :30:22. | |
100% renewable energy aren't about technology or money, they are about | :30:23. | :30:26. | |
political will and vested interest. Those who argued against hundred | :30:27. | :30:29. | |
percent renewable energy seem to think that they are the only people | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
who are clever enough to notice that the wind is not always below where | :30:34. | :30:36. | |
the sender as object. They are not. They need to get up to speed with | :30:37. | :30:40. | |
21st century innovation and technology. For example, why is the | :30:41. | :30:45. | |
UK doing so little on energy stores, efficiency, and demand side | :30:46. | :30:48. | |
response. These are proximal Dunn are practical ways to meet peak | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
demand, rather than the back demand. During the climate talks 43 | :30:54. | :31:04. | |
companies issued an action. This is a joint statement from a CEOs | :31:05. | :31:13. | |
calling for 100% renewables by 2050 and an urgent and imprison | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
anti-fossil fuel subsidies. Those are the government needs to be | :31:18. | :31:22. | |
distinctive. They also need to be listening to leading academics. Last | :31:23. | :31:26. | |
year, Stanford University laid out a road map. Is that the world can | :31:27. | :31:37. | |
reach 80% by 2030, and 100% by 2050 with no negative impact on economic | :31:38. | :31:43. | |
growth. A last September from them in had the UK can get 80% of its | :31:44. | :31:51. | |
renewables by 2030. Even if that were not the case, the sensible | :31:52. | :31:54. | |
course of action is meant to turn our back, it would be to invest in | :31:55. | :31:58. | |
the RAD to make sure that we can get there. This is about fairness and | :31:59. | :32:01. | |
justice, as well as jobs and creating a modern and successful | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
British economy. During the para climate talks they issued | :32:07. | :32:16. | |
scientist called today for renewable energy by 2050 and zero emissions by | :32:17. | :32:19. | |
mid-century in order to keep the world on track. That group | :32:20. | :32:24. | |
represented some 200 million people which has contributed less than 2% | :32:25. | :32:27. | |
of global omissions, but would suffer around 50% of climate | :32:28. | :32:32. | |
impacts. This energy bill should be heating that call for 100% | :32:33. | :32:35. | |
renewables and putting in place policies to be between getting | :32:36. | :32:39. | |
there. To conclude, these are the reasons why I have tabled New Clause | :32:40. | :32:44. | |
12 on just transition. I think that the government needs to recognise | :32:45. | :32:48. | |
they are imperative of leading fossil fuels and the ground and to | :32:49. | :32:54. | |
stop squandering taxpayers money and essential oil and gas that we can't | :32:55. | :32:57. | |
afford to burn. In doing so, I believe that there is a huge | :32:58. | :33:03. | |
opportunity to collaborate with workers and others to build a just | :33:04. | :33:10. | |
transition to a secure, sustainable economy work workers have today in | :33:11. | :33:19. | |
the future. Hear, hear! I rise in support of New Clause seven this | :33:20. | :33:29. | |
evening for cleaning to CCS. ICT site and he... The absence of CCS | :33:30. | :33:39. | |
policy in the UK is a major concern being a critical technology for | :33:40. | :33:46. | |
industrial processes as well as power stations. Within the last 72 | :33:47. | :33:51. | |
hours, and other steel company in my constituency is going to close its | :33:52. | :33:56. | |
doors in May with a loss of 40 jobs. It is critical that we stop start | :33:57. | :34:07. | |
making these decisions now. That was a major blow, not just to those two | :34:08. | :34:11. | |
projects, but to the entire industry. Those are very specific | :34:12. | :34:17. | |
where the country's first initial CCS project was still being implied. | :34:18. | :34:30. | |
The energy to Sir attend a meeting and claimed that the economics... | :34:31. | :34:33. | |
Despite the fact that the final business cases were yet to be | :34:34. | :34:35. | |
submitted. She said an updated policy would be developed, but then | :34:36. | :34:38. | |
went on to suggest that we learned from other countries as they develop | :34:39. | :34:41. | |
their Oil and Gas Authority industry. That is not good enough. | :34:42. | :34:44. | |
Britain has tremendous capability and this area. . I am also worried | :34:45. | :34:52. | |
that the Chancellor does not understand what CCS is. When asked | :34:53. | :34:59. | |
him a question a few weeks ago. I asked him what funding would be | :35:00. | :35:03. | |
available for CCS projects once they come up with new policy? He | :35:04. | :35:09. | |
answered, we have set out our capital budget and our energy policy | :35:10. | :35:12. | |
which was the doubling of the investment of renewable energy over | :35:13. | :35:19. | |
the next five years. While Mr Speaker, not capital for CCS | :35:20. | :35:23. | |
projects there. They spoke of her noble energy. I would like to think | :35:24. | :35:28. | |
that he was just dodging my question. But I sure he understood | :35:29. | :35:35. | |
it. The need for him to sent a signal to personally committed to | :35:36. | :35:45. | |
making macro three and -- CCS. Develop a real strategy but its real | :35:46. | :35:48. | |
intention to make the UK a leader in this field. I thank my honourable | :35:49. | :35:55. | |
friend for giving way. CCS is vital because it gives means by which | :35:56. | :36:01. | |
existing industries which manufacture foundation products | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
which go into wind turbines and other mechanisms that we need for | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
renewables, but it is fundamentally dependent upon technologies which | :36:11. | :36:18. | |
are virgins. They are carbon intensive. If you want to have a | :36:19. | :36:22. | |
renewable strategy with a 42% or higher, we need to have still have | :36:23. | :36:28. | |
parts of the traditional sense. My honourable friend makes the point | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
clear for himself. I believe that being a leader is actually critical | :36:34. | :36:36. | |
to our energy intensive and other industries. For us to overcome the | :36:37. | :36:41. | |
competition from across the world. No use hanging back while other | :36:42. | :36:51. | |
nations steal from us. Home to some of the country possum energy most | :36:52. | :36:54. | |
energy intensive energy. I do like to take this opportunity to invite | :36:55. | :37:00. | |
the Minister in Chancellor to the next meeting on the 23rd of March to | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
learn about their ambitious plans. I know that the Chancellor will be | :37:06. | :37:09. | |
busy until the night before, but I guarantee that be a PPG will be much | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
more for just on the needs of industrial Britain and his possible. | :37:14. | :37:17. | |
The government has made clear to build solicitations. -- power | :37:18. | :37:30. | |
stations. The infrastructure exists to put electricity into the national | :37:31. | :37:40. | |
grid. Both of which can incorporate carbon capture. They can develop | :37:41. | :37:46. | |
their own power station, a potential partner is looking to install a 300 | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
megawatts power plant on that plot. I know some have reservations about | :37:51. | :37:57. | |
the use of fossil fuels, but what an opportunity for the government to | :37:58. | :37:59. | |
put some meaning into the much abused term "Northern Powerhouse". | :38:00. | :38:09. | |
The unmeasurable quarters of doing it that the Teesside collective in | :38:10. | :38:13. | |
developing an exciting project that can be for Teesside that only people | :38:14. | :38:19. | |
in the South can believe will reality. At vision my honourable | :38:20. | :38:25. | |
friend's generosity. At a time when Teesside has seen so many job losses | :38:26. | :38:30. | |
in the last few weeks, carbon capture stores can provide a few | :38:31. | :38:34. | |
opportunity. Is he agree good feedback to enable some kind of | :38:35. | :38:36. | |
transition we need to ensure that jobs are going to local people in | :38:37. | :38:40. | |
that terms and conditions are not being undercut by recruitment of | :38:41. | :38:46. | |
overseas? I know that local trained units have been campaigning in | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
Teesside companies undercutting what is a living way for the people and | :38:52. | :38:58. | |
the skilled people on Teesside. I know that private-sector power | :38:59. | :39:01. | |
stations are always fraught with cleaning congregations. When the | :39:02. | :39:08. | |
time comes, ministers will be open to ensure a quick decision on the | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
planning application. Mr Speaker, it is difficult to see how some of our | :39:14. | :39:17. | |
industries that are critical to our economy can remain located in the UK | :39:18. | :39:25. | |
without CCS. The government appears to have the strategy for macro one | :39:26. | :39:32. | |
development. -- CCS. New Clause seven to compel government to fill | :39:33. | :39:35. | |
this huge hole in energy policy platform. It does everything any | :39:36. | :39:39. | |
self-respecting government want to do. More than that, and can send a | :39:40. | :39:44. | |
signal to the sector that ministers are serious about carbon capture and | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
storage, but they understand it, are prepared to deliver, and our country | :39:50. | :39:52. | |
can benefit from what could be hundreds of thousands of jobs if | :39:53. | :39:59. | |
they got it right. Hear, hear! I rise to speak very briefly in | :40:00. | :40:05. | |
support of New Clause 11 of which I am delighted to have had an | :40:06. | :40:08. | |
opportunity to add meaning to him to pay tribute to my honourable friends | :40:09. | :40:16. | |
for the amendments and consensual way in which he has built the | :40:17. | :40:20. | |
discourse around it, and indeed for the work that he did as the | :40:21. | :40:26. | |
country's first Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. This | :40:27. | :40:29. | |
is an issue that all of us lobbied on. For me, last year by a group of | :40:30. | :40:38. | |
school students from a secondary school on the edge of my | :40:39. | :40:41. | |
constituency who came to Westminster to make the point that their | :40:42. | :40:48. | |
generation was conscious of the consequences they would face if our | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
generation failed to act. It is an incredibly powerful point, but it | :40:55. | :40:59. | |
goes beyond the immediate generation, because there was a | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
report published last month in the Journal nature climate change which | :41:04. | :41:06. | |
may be point that much of the discourse we have around the issue | :41:07. | :41:14. | |
has been focused on the consequences of failing to act by the end of the | :41:15. | :41:20. | |
century. In fact, the problems looking beyond the end of this | :41:21. | :41:23. | |
century are even more serious indeed. The authors made the point | :41:24. | :41:32. | |
that we are making choices that will affect our grandchildren's | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
grandchildren and beyond. We need to think carefully about the long-term | :41:37. | :41:41. | |
skills of what we are admission. That was a professor from Harvard | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
University. The need to act has never been more clear. The need to | :41:47. | :41:52. | |
act more ambitiously. The agreement of the Paris summit is a for, but as | :41:53. | :41:57. | |
last month's report highlighted, even if global warming is capped at | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
government's target of two Celsius, which is already seen as difficult, | :42:03. | :42:08. | |
20% of the world pub for macro's population will have to migrate away | :42:09. | :42:14. | |
from coasts swarmed by populations such as New York, London, Rio, | :42:15. | :42:20. | |
Cairo, Jakarta, in Shanghai would all be submerged. We have seen the | :42:21. | :42:26. | |
struggle to grapple with the refugee crisis, that we have seen grow over | :42:27. | :42:31. | |
the last couple of years. A crisis that was driven by a war in one | :42:32. | :42:37. | |
country, in a number of other related conflicts. Imagine, for a | :42:38. | :42:42. | |
moment, what we will face if 20% of the world's population is forced to | :42:43. | :42:49. | |
do what people have always done when their phones become uninhabitable, | :42:50. | :42:57. | |
move to somewhere better. We need ambition and urgency. It is provided | :42:58. | :43:05. | |
by this New Clause. It is a professor one of the authors of the | :43:06. | :43:12. | |
report that said, the next 20 years are in Port to put us on a path and | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
ensuring that the next 200 years the impacts are limited and give us time | :43:17. | :43:23. | |
to adapt. I would say to the honourable member for Aberdeen South | :43:24. | :43:31. | |
and his comments on this New Clause that the reservations that he | :43:32. | :43:38. | |
expressed have been taken account of in the thoughtful way that the | :43:39. | :43:41. | |
Clause has been drafted, and the role that it provides for the | :43:42. | :43:44. | |
committee on climate change. What we need is the ambition that is | :43:45. | :43:51. | |
embodied in this New Clause. As my right honourable friend said, we did | :43:52. | :43:58. | |
it but the 2008 UK climate act. It sends a signal to the world. We can | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
do that again. We need to do that again. He cannot afford not to. The | :44:04. | :44:08. | |
reality is that the future is bleak if we do not cut our emissions | :44:09. | :44:15. | |
further than Paris suggested. The role that this New Clause proposes | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
for the committee on climate change is important but in terms of your | :44:20. | :44:25. | |
robustness of that ambition, and also its portability. I am pleased | :44:26. | :44:27. | |
to hear that the constructive engagement that there has been the | :44:28. | :44:31. | |
my right honourable friend and the secretary of state, and I hope that | :44:32. | :44:35. | |
we can in her comments later here that we came together -- can | :44:36. | :44:39. | |
together move forward together on this issue. I will not speak very | :44:40. | :44:48. | |
briefly to government and the events 48, 49, and also 51. Amendment 48 | :44:49. | :44:56. | |
and 49 ad development provisions of the well taxation act of 1975 in the | :44:57. | :45:01. | |
Corporation tax act 2010 to the legislation listed at Clause to (6). | :45:02. | :45:12. | |
This ensures that the functions provided for in these acts fall | :45:13. | :45:16. | |
within the definition of relevant functions, and can be transferred | :45:17. | :45:19. | |
from the secretary of state to the Oil and Gas Authority by regulations | :45:20. | :45:25. | |
made under Clause two of the bracket to close bracket. | :45:26. | :45:33. | |
Contain the important oil and gas functions of determining oil fields | :45:34. | :45:40. | |
and cluster areas by selectively. These functions from the basis of | :45:41. | :45:45. | |
well taxation. Petroleum revenue tax supplied by determined field and | :45:46. | :45:50. | |
allowances given by cluster area to reduce the amount of profits to | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
which the supplementary charges apply. Both of these functions | :45:55. | :45:59. | |
currently undertaken by the Oil and Gas Authority in its capacity as an | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
executive agency have a fundamental to our tax regime and incentivizing | :46:05. | :46:08. | |
investment. These amendments by technical and simply seek to put | :46:09. | :46:12. | |
beyond doubt that these key functions can be transferred to the | :46:13. | :46:15. | |
OG a want ad because a government company as it -- as we have always | :46:16. | :46:22. | |
intended. To explain government amended 51 which introduces an | :46:23. | :46:26. | |
amendments title. This amendment as consequent to the removal of the | :46:27. | :46:46. | |
bell at committee stage. -- bill. Now Mr Speaker, coming the proposed | :46:47. | :46:50. | |
amendments put forward by honourable members, firstly to New Clause three | :46:51. | :46:55. | |
which was tabled by the honourable member for Aberdeen South and New | :46:56. | :46:59. | |
Clause seven table by the honourable member for Wigan and others. I also | :47:00. | :47:07. | |
know that the honourable member for the -- force CCS and we have | :47:08. | :47:14. | |
discussed on a number of occasions. These amendments... I am pleased to | :47:15. | :47:20. | |
acknowledge the work that the Minister has done, but the important | :47:21. | :47:24. | |
thing is that we are able to convince the Chancellor that he | :47:25. | :47:27. | |
should fund CCS sometime in the future. I wonder how open the | :47:28. | :47:34. | |
Minister is the that? These amendments seek to please a duty on | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
the secretary of state to commenced a CCS strategy by 2017. An report on | :47:40. | :47:45. | |
progress every three years. The Clause is also set out the strategy | :47:46. | :47:49. | |
must help deliver the emissions reduction to meet the fit and | :47:50. | :47:55. | |
subsequent carbon budgets. As I emphasised at the book committee, | :47:56. | :47:58. | |
the government's view remains that the CCS has an important role to | :47:59. | :48:03. | |
play in the long-term decarbonization of the UK's | :48:04. | :48:12. | |
industrial power sectors. And in the longevity of must-see industries. | :48:13. | :48:17. | |
However, we know that currently CCS costs are high, which is why we | :48:18. | :48:21. | |
remain committed to working with industry to bring forward innovative | :48:22. | :48:25. | |
ideas for reducing the costs of this potentially important technology. I | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
will give way to the honourable gentleman. I think the Minister for | :48:30. | :48:34. | |
giving way. I think her her comments. Given the increased | :48:35. | :48:46. | |
construction, and the fact that it has been well noted in this house of | :48:47. | :48:50. | |
the removal of the CCS competition was a missed opportunity. In | :48:51. | :48:53. | |
Scotland, we still have the CCS project which was committed with CCS | :48:54. | :49:01. | |
technology, will the Minister agree that CCS advisor group should look | :49:02. | :49:07. | |
at this as an opportunity to get us back on track? What I can say is | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
that the government is invested over ?220 million since 2011 and CCS. | :49:13. | :49:19. | |
This financial year alone we invested 6 million, including 1.7 | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
million and October 2015, Lasher, to support three CCS innovative | :49:26. | :49:33. | |
technologies. And to .5 million to investigate potential new CO2 | :49:34. | :49:38. | |
stores. We have also invested ?60 million of our international climate | :49:39. | :49:42. | |
fund to support CCS capacity building and action internationally. | :49:43. | :49:45. | |
The honourable Sentinel the micro gentleman will be aware that they | :49:46. | :49:57. | |
provided money and 2015. As I say, Mr Speaker, we know that currently | :49:58. | :50:02. | |
CCS costs are high. We are committed to working with industry to bring | :50:03. | :50:05. | |
forward innovative ideas to reduce the costs. A key part of this is our | :50:06. | :50:12. | |
continuing investment and CCS to innovation support, international | :50:13. | :50:14. | |
partnerships, and industrial research projects. I recognise that | :50:15. | :50:20. | |
industry and others are keen for government to set out its approach | :50:21. | :50:24. | |
to CCS as soon as possible. As a emphasise that the book committee, | :50:25. | :50:27. | |
the government will do this by the end of 2016. In doing so, we will | :50:28. | :50:33. | |
continue to engage closely with industry, the all party group, the | :50:34. | :50:43. | |
CCS strategy group, which will give recommendations by the summer. I | :50:44. | :50:47. | |
hope that I have reassured honourable members that their new | :50:48. | :50:51. | |
clauses are unnecessary. I do hope that they will be content to | :50:52. | :50:55. | |
withdraw their amendments. I will give way to the honourable | :50:56. | :51:00. | |
gentleman. I wonder if she would hazard a comment on the proposed | :51:01. | :51:03. | |
project for Teesside that would see a 300 megawatts power station built | :51:04. | :51:11. | |
on the site Appleton backed up with CCS. I wonder if she has a comment | :51:12. | :51:17. | |
on that? As I said to the honourable gentleman, I continue to engage with | :51:18. | :51:22. | |
him and others. The CCS advisory group will be publishing its | :51:23. | :51:28. | |
findings. As he and other honourable members will know, CCS costs are | :51:29. | :51:35. | |
currently extreme high. I can't make any kid at its own particular | :51:36. | :51:40. | |
profits right now. Turning to new clauses six and ten tabled by the | :51:41. | :51:46. | |
right honourable members, these are intended to restrict the carbon | :51:47. | :51:49. | |
accounting rules that are allowed under the climate change act. From | :51:50. | :51:56. | |
the fifth carbon budget period. Under the current rules, we count | :51:57. | :52:01. | |
the UK's admissions for some sectors, and for other sectors, | :52:02. | :52:04. | |
reflect the EU emissions trading works. These amendments will prevent | :52:05. | :52:10. | |
us from continuing with this approach. Instead, the intention is | :52:11. | :52:17. | |
presumably that the UK's actual admissions for all sectors are | :52:18. | :52:21. | |
counted, but without the ability to offset any of these do a system of | :52:22. | :52:26. | |
carbon accounting. As I said previously, even with this change we | :52:27. | :52:29. | |
would still participate in the EU emissions trading system. The effect | :52:30. | :52:32. | |
of these amendments would just be that we would not reflect how the EU | :52:33. | :52:42. | |
emissions trading system works. Of course, there are arguments for and | :52:43. | :52:45. | |
against different accounting methods. It does require careful | :52:46. | :52:49. | |
consideration of several different factors, including the impact on | :52:50. | :52:54. | |
consumers, businesses, and industry, and of course on meeting our | :52:55. | :52:58. | |
domestic, EU, and international covenants and the cheapest way. My | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
honourable friend for Warrington South clearly set out to be | :53:03. | :53:06. | |
challenges for energy intensive industries. It is absolutely right | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
that we keep under review our current practices. Now is not the | :53:12. | :53:17. | |
right time to make these changes. We are focused on setting the fifth | :53:18. | :53:21. | |
carbon budget, and we have to do that by the 30th of June this year | :53:22. | :53:25. | |
as required by the climate change act. That is less than four months | :53:26. | :53:30. | |
away. Accepting new clauses six or ten at this point in the process | :53:31. | :53:34. | |
with threaten serious delay to setting the fifth carbon budget. | :53:35. | :53:38. | |
This cannot be right, and it can't be what right honourable members | :53:39. | :53:41. | |
intended. I just can't accept that it is at risk of not complying with | :53:42. | :53:46. | |
the weekly committed climate change act. -- legally. I hope that | :53:47. | :53:51. | |
honourable members will be prepared to withdraw these memos. I turned | :53:52. | :53:54. | |
out to New Clause 11 tabled by the right honourable member for | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
Doncaster North. This amendment would set a new climate change | :54:00. | :54:03. | |
target for the UK, specifically, it would require the government to set | :54:04. | :54:07. | |
a cure by which the images would be zero or less. And to ensure that | :54:08. | :54:10. | |
this target is met for that year and the subsequent ones. The year but | :54:11. | :54:15. | |
have to be set within 12 months of this energy bill coming into force, | :54:16. | :54:17. | |
and following advice in the committee on climate change. I want | :54:18. | :54:21. | |
to sincerely thank the right honourable gentleman for raising | :54:22. | :54:25. | |
this important issue. And for his statements over a long period of | :54:26. | :54:28. | |
time to the House on the matter. I know the House was delighted with | :54:29. | :54:31. | |
the Paris agreement, which included a goal for global net zero | :54:32. | :54:35. | |
admissions by the end of the century. By right honourable friend, | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
the secretary of state, played a crucial role herself in | :54:40. | :54:41. | |
support for the school in Paris, and I would also like to think the right | :54:42. | :54:46. | |
honourable Zondervan for his support and securing such an ambitious deal. | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
I am fearful for his past and continued commitment to the | :54:51. | :54:55. | |
continued subject of climate change. The government believes that we will | :54:56. | :54:59. | |
need to take the step of the micro of enshrining the parents goal. The | :55:00. | :55:07. | |
question is not whether, but how we do it. There is an important set of | :55:08. | :55:11. | |
questions to be answered before we do. The committee on climate change | :55:12. | :55:17. | |
is looking at the implications of the commitments and parents, and has | :55:18. | :55:21. | |
that able to report in autumn. We all want to consider, carefully, the | :55:22. | :55:24. | |
recommendations of the committee. I am very happy to get the right | :55:25. | :55:27. | |
honourable gentleman the undertaking that we will also discuss with him | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
and put others the House how best to approach this matter once we have | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
undertaken a consideration. I believe, Mr Speaker, that this is an | :55:38. | :55:41. | |
example once again of the House demonstrating on a cross party basis | :55:42. | :55:45. | |
in determination to tackle climate change as he showed and the climate | :55:46. | :55:50. | |
change act. We are determined to build on the momentum of Paris, and | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
I believe our positive response to the right honourable gentleman today | :55:55. | :55:58. | |
is a clear example of it. I hope that on that basis, the right | :55:59. | :56:00. | |
honourable gentleman will agree to withdraw his amendment. Next I will | :56:01. | :56:06. | |
respond to New Clause 12 tabled by the honourable member for Brighton | :56:07. | :56:11. | |
Pavilion. This amendment will require the secretary of state to | :56:12. | :56:15. | |
develop and publish a national strategy for the energy sector | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
towards 100% renewable energy by 2050 under the framework of a | :56:21. | :56:23. | |
so-called "Just physician". I want to start to start recognising the | :56:24. | :56:30. | |
member and I can agree. She is a passionate advocate for tackling | :56:31. | :56:33. | |
climate change. That is something that this government is firmly | :56:34. | :56:37. | |
committed to doing. Out domestic climate change act is world leading, | :56:38. | :56:41. | |
and my right honourable friend the secretary of state played a critical | :56:42. | :56:45. | |
role/ year in securing a strong, global deal in Paris. He also agreed | :56:46. | :56:50. | |
on the important pool for renewables and helping to reduce emissions. In | :56:51. | :56:53. | |
particular, I welcome the progress that we have seen so far in driving | :56:54. | :56:58. | |
down the cost of renewables technologies such as offshore wind | :56:59. | :57:03. | |
and solar. While I hope that we can indeed agree on these points, we do | :57:04. | :57:07. | |
have different views on the best way to go about reducing emissions. | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
There are three reasons why I can't accept her amendment. First, it goes | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
against the principle of technology neutrality which ensures that we can | :57:18. | :57:21. | |
cut emissions at the lowest cost to consumers. Second, we already engage | :57:22. | :57:28. | |
vary widely on our approach to decarbonization. Thirdly, it | :57:29. | :57:33. | |
overlaps significantly with the existing legislative requirement for | :57:34. | :57:36. | |
us to publish policies and proposals for tackling climate change. | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
We are committed to ensuring the UK doesn't part to tackle climate | :57:42. | :57:47. | |
change, and we want to cut omissions as cheaply as possible, and drive | :57:48. | :57:51. | |
down costs for families and for businesses. I will give way to the | :57:52. | :57:58. | |
Honorable Lady. I wonder if you could elaborate a little bit more on | :57:59. | :58:03. | |
her technology neutrality point. All am talking about here is renewables | :58:04. | :58:06. | |
and energy efficiency, and storage and so forth, if she knows of some | :58:07. | :58:09. | |
wonderful new technology that can get our omissions down more quickly | :58:10. | :58:13. | |
and more cheaply, I would love to hear about it. At the Honorable Lady | :58:14. | :58:19. | |
well knows, one transitional approach to decarbonization is to | :58:20. | :58:23. | |
move away from coal and towards gas as a bridge to a low carbon future. | :58:24. | :58:28. | |
She will also be very aware that new nuclear offers a low carbon | :58:29. | :58:31. | |
technology for the future, and one that this government is committed to | :58:32. | :58:37. | |
supporting. So, I do appreciate the intent behind much of the Honorable | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
Lady's amendment, but I hope she can see why I cannot accept the | :58:42. | :58:45. | |
specifics of the amendment, and that she will be content to withdraw it. | :58:46. | :58:49. | |
I turned out to New Clause eight, Mr Speaker, which was tabled by the | :58:50. | :58:52. | |
Honorable member for Wigan, and others. This amendment would require | :58:53. | :58:56. | |
the Secretary of State to step a decarbonization target range | :58:57. | :59:01. | |
electricity sector. We debated very similar amendments in the last | :59:02. | :59:04. | |
Parliament, and also during the passage of this spell, and the other | :59:05. | :59:09. | |
place, and in other stages. The government has made our own position | :59:10. | :59:12. | |
on this matter very clear, and we are committed to ensuring the UK | :59:13. | :59:16. | |
continues to do its part to tackle climate change, in line with the | :59:17. | :59:20. | |
climate change act, and are international and EU obligations. | :59:21. | :59:24. | |
However, we want to do this as cost effectively as possible. To keep | :59:25. | :59:29. | |
costs down for families and businesses, | :59:30. | :00:04. | |
while delivering on legally binding commitments. We cannot do that by | :00:05. | :00:07. | |
blocking ourselves into additional expensive, and inflexible targets, | :00:08. | :00:09. | |
relating to the power sector. There are just too many things we cannot | :00:10. | :00:11. | |
predict about how the energy system will develop over the next 15 years | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
and beyond. The cost of getting this right now would be picked up by | :00:15. | :00:17. | |
families and businesses for decades to come. I find it strange that | :00:18. | :00:19. | |
opposition parties are often arguing that we'r e not doing enough to | :00:20. | :00:22. | |
tackle fuel poverty. And yet they're urging us to sign consumers up to | :00:23. | :00:24. | |
distorting and expensive power sector want to know that we have | :00:25. | :00:26. | |
clear, investors want to know that we have is setting up the next | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
stages and its long-term commitment to move to a low carbon economy, | :00:30. | :00:31. | |
providing a basis for electricity investment into the next decade. The | :00:32. | :00:34. | |
huge investment we have seen so far is evidence that our approach is | :00:35. | :00:36. | |
working, between 2010, and 2014, our policies have secured an, and | :00:37. | :00:38. | |
affordable plans. The government is setting up the next stages and its | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
long-term commitment to move to a low carbon economy, providing a | :00:42. | :00:43. | |
basis for electricity investment into the next decade. The huge | :00:44. | :00:45. | |
investment we have seen so far is evidence that our approach is | :00:46. | :00:47. | |
working, between 2010, and 2014, our policies have secured ?32 billion, | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
of investment in low carbon electricity. Including ?40 billion | :00:52. | :00:53. | |
in renewables. And we have more in the pipeline for the future I cannot | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
accept this amendment, and I asked Honorable members to withdraw Mr | :00:57. | :00:58. | |
Speaker, I would like now to deal with New Clause McColl tabled by the | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
Honorable member for Wigan, and others. This amendment seeks to | :01:02. | :01:03. | |
eligibility criteria, requiring any new eligibility criteria, requiring | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
any year capacity agreements to be made -- Bill accessing 15 year | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
capacity agreements to be made subject amendment is not achieved | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
its intended aim, so I'm surprised to see it reappear here. The EPS | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
sets and annual limit specifically on CO2 emissions performance | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
standard, or EPS. As I have explained previously, the amendment | :01:24. | :01:25. | |
is not achieved its intended aim, so I'm surprised to see it reappear | :01:26. | :01:27. | |
here. The EPS sets an annual limit specifically on from fossil fuel | :01:28. | :01:30. | |
plant, with an fuel generated about 50 megawatts seeking to participate | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
in the capacity market, will already be subject to this limit, so nothing | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
would be gained by introducing this as a further eligibility 50 | :01:39. | :01:40. | |
megawatts. Any new fossil fuel generated about 50 megawatts seeking | :01:41. | :01:42. | |
to participate in the capacity market, will already be subject to | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
this limit, so nothing would be gained by introducing this as a | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
further eligibility 15 year agreement, so this would also have | :01:50. | :01:54. | |
no impact on those generators. As I have set out before, the mission | :01:55. | :01:57. | |
impact from smaller generators that sit below the 50 megawatts threshold | :01:58. | :02:01. | |
is often assumed to be larger than it is in reality. Small peaking | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
generation have a relatively small impact on overall CO2 emissions due | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
to be short hours that they run, and I will make my point, and that I | :02:12. | :02:13. | |
will give way to the Honorable gentleman. These generators run less | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
than 100 hours a year, in the case of diesel engines. While larger | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
fossil fuel plants will run for 2000 hours or more. Proposed amendment is | :02:23. | :02:28. | |
not effective for the simple reason that the annual EPS CTO -- CO2 | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
emissions, it would be very unlikely to have any impact on small | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
generators, part -- participating in the market. I will give way. Is in | :02:38. | :02:43. | |
the proposal that the Minister herself is putting forward for the | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
future, inclusion of smallest diesel sets into air quality standards | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
subject to exactly the same problem? They bring smaller generators into a | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
scheme which was originally proposed for larger generators, and thereby | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
including them in the system? That is exactly what the amendment is | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
proposing, for the smaller diesel subs coming into an omissions | :03:04. | :03:05. | |
performance standard, that otherwise would apply to larger plants. As I | :03:06. | :03:11. | |
explained, his amendment is not have that effect, but I'm not complacent | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
about concerns associated with local pollutants from small generators. | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
I'm very aware of the concern in particular about diesel. The | :03:21. | :03:24. | |
Department for the environment, food, will consult later this year | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
on options that will include legislation that would set binding | :03:29. | :03:31. | |
and mission limit values on the relevant air pollutants from the | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
smaller engines. With a view to having legislation enforced no later | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
than January 2019, and possibly sooner. These would apply to | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
generators or groups of generators with the rate of thermal input equal | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
to or greater than one megawatt, and less than 50 megawatts. Irrespective | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
of their hours of operation on any given year, so this shows that the | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
government is taking it -- appropriate action to avoid any | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
disproportionate action on air quality from smaller engines, where | :04:03. | :04:04. | |
these could contribute to harmful levels of air pollutants. The | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
exceeding of existing air-quality values. These limits send a clear | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
message about the viability of developing and running diesel | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
generators in the future. I hope Honorable members have found my | :04:22. | :04:23. | |
explanation reassuring, and we will be content to withdraw their | :04:24. | :04:30. | |
amendment. I turn now to New Clause five, tabled by the right Honorable | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
member. This amendment seeks to reinsert the Clause added by the | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
opposition and the other place, once again, rewriting the oil and gas | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
Authority's principal objective of maximizing economic recovery. This | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
topic has been debated at length brought the passage of this bill. | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
The government successfully removed the previous situation of this | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
Clause at committee, with the support of Honorable members from | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
the Scottish national party, importantly, it was agreed across | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
the room, including by the opposition front bench that diluting | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
the focus of the LGA in such a weight is undesirable. In light of | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
this, I must say I'm surprised and rather disappointed that the right | :05:13. | :05:15. | |
Honorable member who tabled this amendment not least, because of the | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
serious implications it has for jobs and growth in Scotland, as I have | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
said many times, any amendment that the tracks in the focus on | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
maximizing economic or is damaging to the North Sea, such a move is | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
unacceptable, particularly at a time of unprecedented challenge. For the | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
oil and gas industry. I'm as disappointed as she claims to be | :05:40. | :05:45. | |
with me. To suggest that the LGA, which is an exceptionally big public | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
body is incapable of doing more than one thing is rather insulting to the | :05:51. | :05:57. | |
body that worked so hard to save us. The right Honorable gentleman, | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
misses the point, he -- the point about its principal objective being | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
to maximise the economic recovery is that they'll will then focus its | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
efforts on the long-term sustainability of the North Sea, and | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
not that the other house put in place, which is something related to | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
short termism, and trying to maximise the profitability and so | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
on, which would simply be countered to the job growth in his | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
constituency and others. Removing the LGA focus seriously risks | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
weakening its ability to provide support to an industry that is so | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
urgently in need of it. The potential knock on wood be | :06:38. | :06:40. | |
significant, and it would risk the premature decommissioning of key | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
North Sea infrastructure, but would also seriously jeopardise vital | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
skills and experience, including those that could prompt mode the | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
longevity of the industry for carbon storage objects. From this | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
perspective, the amendment is self-defeating. Furthermore, the | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
maximizing economic recovery for UK strategy is not being published and | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
is currently before Parliament. The impact of this amendment would undo | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
a significant amount of work that has been undertaken with industry, | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
and would require the LGA to revise its UK strategy, to take into | :07:12. | :07:13. | |
account the expansion in the principal objective. As the | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
Honorable member for Aberdeen South was mentioned on them for a | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
vacation, it really is mission critical that the LGA maintains a | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
laser-like focus on maximizing economy... Setting it up to fail, | :07:29. | :07:35. | |
and it's crucial mission to protect our domestic energy mix, and to | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
support hundreds of thousands of jobs. This is not what is best for | :07:39. | :07:46. | |
the UK or its future. A thinker for drawing attention to that. I think | :07:47. | :07:48. | |
it is absolutely fundamental that the LGA does this. It is also | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
fundamental to the industry for the chancellor to have that laser-like | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
focus, and reiterated her to make sure that the industry gets that | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
support it needs on Wednesday. I am grateful to him for that, and he | :08:02. | :08:04. | |
will be aware that the Chancellor has a very... I hope you will be | :08:05. | :08:11. | |
pleased, but I could assure him that his interests and the interests of | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
the UK Continental shelf are being very carefully considered. I do hope | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
that the right honourable gentleman will be content to withdraw his | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
amendment. Mr Speaker, lastly, you'll be pleased to know that I | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
turn to amendment 47, tabled by the Honorable member for Reagan and | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
others. The amendment would oblige the LGA to consider the most | :08:34. | :08:36. | |
advantageous use of North Sea infrastructure. For the overbroad | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
benefit comp right to the decommissioning of such sites. I'm | :08:42. | :08:44. | |
delighted to note that the support across this house for the measures | :08:45. | :08:51. | |
to establish the OGA, the impact of the fall in oil prices makes this | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
even more critical. Why we're taking urgent steps to stimulate | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
investments and expiration, it is equally important to the overall | :09:01. | :09:03. | |
viability of the North Sea that we make the best use of infrastructure, | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
in order to mitigate the risks of premature decommissioning, and this | :09:09. | :09:11. | |
requires a holistic approach. In which operators and infrastructure | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
owners collaborate to ensure the maximum economic recovery of | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
petroleum for the UK Continental shelf. That is precisely provided by | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
the OGA's principal objective, set out in section nine A of the | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
petroleum act of 1998. The strategy to maximise economic recovery is | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
furthering addressing this issue, and includes students to plan, | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
commission, and maintain infrastructure in a way that meets | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
the optimum configuration for maximizing the value of economically | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
recoverable petroleum, taking into account the operational needs of | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
others. So the strategy and the measures in this bill intro that | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
before any infrastructure and relevant UK waters, but the owners | :09:58. | :09:59. | |
of the infrastructure and the LGA must ensure that all viable options | :10:00. | :10:08. | |
for its continued use or export. Mr Speaker, the LGA -- OGA, is working | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
for a framework focused on them proving late like management. The | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
LGA will publish its decommissioning sector this summer. I hope Honorable | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
members have found my explanation reassuring, and will be content to | :10:23. | :10:23. | |
withdraw their amendment. The question is that New Clause | :10:24. | :10:37. | |
during the ride a second time. As many as are of the opinion, say | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
"aye". To the contrary, "no". Clear the lobby! | :10:45. | :11:05. | |
Border! The question is that New Clause three B read a second time. | :11:06. | :12:52. | |
As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". | :12:53. | :13:06. | |
Tenders for the noes, Miss Margot James. | :13:07. | :18:48. | |
Are! Border! -- border! The ayes to the right, 229, the noes to the | :18:49. | :22:44. | |
left, 268. The ayes to the right, 229. The noes | :22:45. | :23:00. | |
to the left, 268. The noes habit, the noes Abbott. Unlock! -- habit. | :23:01. | :23:09. | |
Doctor Whitehead to move New Clause eight formally, thank you. The | :23:10. | :23:17. | |
question is that New Clause eight be read a second time. As many as are | :23:18. | :23:20. | |
of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". Adjourn! Clear the | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
lobby! Border! The question is that New | :23:27. | :25:40. | |
Clause eight to be read a second time. As many as are of the opinion, | :25:41. | :25:49. | |
say "aye". To the contrary, "no". Tellers for... I will have a word | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
with him over commodity at some point. Tenders for the ayes, Mr | :25:56. | :26:08. | |
Graham Morris. And Mr Jeff Smith. Tenders for the no, Miss Margot | :26:09. | :26:10. | |
James. Order, order! The ayes to the right | :26:11. | :35:44. | |
227, the noes to the last, 272. -- laughed. The ayes to the left -- | :35:45. | :35:54. | |
227, and noes 272. The noes cabinet. Unlock! To move New Clause ten. The | :35:55. | :36:04. | |
question is that New Clause ten B read a second time. As many as are | :36:05. | :36:07. | |
of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". Clearly lobby. -- | :36:08. | :36:16. | |
cleared the lobby. The question is that New Clause ten | :36:17. | :38:20. | |
be read a second time. As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To | :38:21. | :38:30. | |
the contrary, "no". Tell us for the eyes, and tell us for the noes. | :38:31. | :44:20. | |
Order, order! The ayes to the bag, 229. The noes to the left, 275. The | :44:21. | :47:20. | |
ayes to the right, 229. The noes to the left, 275. The noes cabinet, the | :47:21. | :47:29. | |
noes cabinet. Unlock. With leave, we will take the government amendment | :47:30. | :47:36. | |
40 eight, 49, and 51 together. The Minister to move governments | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
amendments formally, thank you. The question is that government | :47:42. | :47:45. | |
amendments 40 weight, 49, and 51 be made. As many as are of the opinion, | :47:46. | :47:50. | |
say "aye". To the contrary, "no". I think the ayes habit. Order, order! | :47:51. | :47:58. | |
Consideration completed. I will now suspend the House for no more than | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
five minutes in order to make a decision about certification. The | :48:03. | :48:07. | |
division bells will be wrong to minutes before the House resumes. | :48:08. | :48:12. | |
Following my certification, the government will table the | :48:13. | :48:15. | |
appropriate content ocean, copies of which will be made available in the | :48:16. | :48:20. | |
vote office and will be distributed by doorkeepers. Order. | :48:21. | :49:02. | |
INTRO MUSIC in good times and bad, every budget based at the same way | :49:03. | :49:13. | |
with a chance to microchips or any exchequer standing here in holding | :49:14. | :49:16. | |
up the budget box. The budget speech contained in the box is how the | :49:17. | :49:20. | |
government outlined its tax bounce for the next year. How is going to | :49:21. | :49:24. | |
base money, but not how it is going to spend it. That comes later. Do | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
these measures, it aims to stimulate the economy or hold it back. The | :49:30. | :49:33. | |
budget affects everybody from individuals to businesses. It's not | :49:34. | :49:37. | |
just about tax on booze and cigarettes. Box in hand, the | :49:38. | :49:47. | |
Chancellor then had turned down the street to outline the government | :49:48. | :49:49. | |
plans to MPs. The classic budget box number or Gladstone box, was retired | :49:50. | :49:54. | |
in 2010 after over 100 years in use. Traditionally, to aid the Chancellor | :49:55. | :49:59. | |
and the northern part, something has been provided to put some fires in | :50:00. | :50:08. | |
the belly. William Gladstone in dude sherry and beatnik, the management | :50:09. | :50:12. | |
this baby had brandy and water. He had a gin and tonic. Can Clark | :50:13. | :50:16. | |
enjoyed a whiskey in the dispatch box. Nigel Lawson said a white wine | :50:17. | :50:24. | |
spritzer. Traditionally, the alcoholic pickle came to an end in | :50:25. | :50:27. | |
1997 with new Labour. Now counsellors do nothing stronger than | :50:28. | :50:32. | |
mineral water. The comments is always packed for a budget | :50:33. | :50:38. | |
statement. They sit in silence. The length of the state and berries. Mr | :50:39. | :50:42. | |
Gladstone, the one of the great parliamentary or holds the record. | :50:43. | :50:48. | |
-- orators. No wonder he needed a drink. The prime minister | :50:49. | :50:53. | |
traditionally sits beside the Chancellor. Looking glum more | :50:54. | :51:02. | |
elated. Budget rules mean, unlike other legislation, certain changes | :51:03. | :51:06. | |
such as taxes on petrol and alcohol take effect from 6pm on budget day. | :51:07. | :51:11. | |
And I commend this budget to the House! MPs debate the budget led by | :51:12. | :51:18. | |
the Leader of the Opposition. The finance Bill brings the government's | :51:19. | :51:23. | |
tax proposals into law. It is briefly debated in the Lords, but | :51:24. | :51:26. | |
peers cannot amend or delay it as they have no power over public | :51:27. | :51:31. | |
taxation bills. The budget legislation is brought into effect | :51:32. | :51:34. | |
in the finance Bill is enacted. This happens in July following a spring | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
budget. And that's it. The Chancellor can put his budget box | :51:40. | :51:42. | |
away for the next her. But we will also be perfect for the next 12 | :51:43. | :51:45. | |
months. AFTER MUSIC. Order, order! I can now inform house | :51:46. | :52:46. | |
that I have completed certification of the bill as required by the | :52:47. | :52:54. | |
standing order. I have confirmed the view expressed in my provisional | :52:55. | :52:59. | |
certificate issued on 9th of March. Copies of my final search Dunn | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
research advocate can be made available in the note off it in on | :53:04. | :53:06. | |
the Parliamentary website. Understanding order number 83 M a | :53:07. | :53:12. | |
consent motion is therefore required for the bill to proceed. Copies of | :53:13. | :53:17. | |
the motion are available in the vote office and on the Parliamentary | :53:18. | :53:20. | |
website, and have been made available to members in the chamber. | :53:21. | :53:27. | |
Does the Minister intend to move the consent motion? Thank you. | :53:28. | :53:34. | |
Understanding order number 83 M subsection four the House months | :53:35. | :53:37. | |
forth with resolve itself into a legislative grant committee England | :53:38. | :53:40. | |
and Wales. Order, order! Order, order! There will not be a | :53:41. | :54:08. | |
debate on the consent motion for England and Wales. I remind | :54:09. | :54:12. | |
honourable members that all members may speak in the debate, but if | :54:13. | :54:17. | |
there are divisions only members representing constituencies in | :54:18. | :54:21. | |
England and Wales may boat on the consent motion. I called the | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
Minister to move the consent motion for England and Wales. I beg to move | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
the consent motion and the name of my right honourable friend the | :54:30. | :54:32. | |
Secretary of State. As set out in the written ministerial statement | :54:33. | :54:35. | |
tabled on the 10th of March. Nothing has changed since the bill was | :54:36. | :54:41. | |
introduced. I urge honourable and right honourable members to support | :54:42. | :54:44. | |
the consent motion. The question is the consent motion relating to | :54:45. | :54:47. | |
England and Wales as on the notice paper. As many of that opinion say | :54:48. | :54:58. | |
ayes on the contrary, noes the ayes habit. -- ayes habit. Order, order! | :54:59. | :55:22. | |
Order, order! Third reading. I think to report that the legislative grant | :55:23. | :55:31. | |
committee of England and Wales has considered to be certification | :55:32. | :55:33. | |
Democrats certified Clause of the order bill laws. Third reading? The | :55:34. | :55:43. | |
Queens consent? The prince of Wales's consent? Minister to move | :55:44. | :55:53. | |
third reading, secretary of state. I beg to move that the bill be now | :55:54. | :55:58. | |
read a third time. Madam Deputy Speaker, this government is focused | :55:59. | :56:03. | |
on delivering measures that support our long-term plan for secure, | :56:04. | :56:08. | |
clean, affordable energy supplies. This bill puts and plays key | :56:09. | :56:12. | |
manifesto commitments to achieve those objectives. First, bite | :56:13. | :56:17. | |
meeting our commitment to support the development of oil and gas and | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
the North Sea. This bill provides the oil and gas Authority with the | :56:23. | :56:25. | |
direction and power it needs to be an effective regulator and to | :56:26. | :56:29. | |
maximise recovery of resources and the North Sea to the benefit of | :56:30. | :56:35. | |
Britain's energy security. Second, meeting our commitments to end new | :56:36. | :56:39. | |
public subsidies for onshore wind and giving local people the final | :56:40. | :56:43. | |
say on wind farm applications. In doing so, this bill will protect | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
bill payers by helping to control the cost to the public on support | :56:49. | :56:53. | |
for Noble energy. Madam Deputy Speaker, let me take these in turn | :56:54. | :56:56. | |
adjusting the action be taken since the bill's second reading in January | :56:57. | :57:00. | |
before touching on other honourable member measures and the bill. As I | :57:01. | :57:04. | |
set out on second reading, amendments made any other sought to | :57:05. | :57:09. | |
expand considerably to the objectives of the Oil and Gas | :57:10. | :57:12. | |
Authority. Our view is that this would dilute the fact the macro | :57:13. | :57:16. | |
focus of the OGA as a crucial factor for the oil and gas industry. This | :57:17. | :57:21. | |
house has reinstated the OCA's original objective for maximizing | :57:22. | :57:29. | |
economic recovery. OGA's. The OGA must have clarity on their primary | :57:30. | :57:34. | |
objective. Be bill as it now stands provide that. With regards to | :57:35. | :57:40. | |
onshore wind, I set out are accepted a second reading to be introduce | :57:41. | :57:43. | |
clauses that were removed and the other place. This was a clear | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
government commitment, and I am pleased to see these provisions put | :57:48. | :57:52. | |
back. Madam Deputy Speaker, let me be exposed. This bill and a | :57:53. | :57:57. | |
manifesto commitment. Clause 79 helps to implement that commitment | :57:58. | :58:03. | |
to its new public subsidies for onshore wind. Onshore wind has | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
deployed successfully to date, but without control that is the risk of | :58:08. | :58:10. | |
over the appointment beyond the range that we have set for 2020, the | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
range that we have considered affordable. Over the appointment | :58:16. | :58:20. | |
would potentially add extra costs to consumer bills or reduce the amount | :58:21. | :58:24. | |
support available to less mature technologies such as offshore wind | :58:25. | :58:29. | |
that need help to bring their costs down. Just as public subsidies have | :58:30. | :58:33. | |
brought down the cost of onshore wind. To protect investor | :58:34. | :58:37. | |
confidence, we have also inserted Clause 80, which sets out a | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
legislation and grace period for those projects meeting certain | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
conditions as of June the 18th of last year. This allows such projects | :58:47. | :58:50. | |
to continue to seek accreditation under the renewables obligation | :58:51. | :58:54. | |
after the early closure date. Madam Deputy Speaker, I will also | :58:55. | :58:58. | |
introduce a Clause relevant to Northern Ireland. Every means in a | :58:59. | :59:01. | |
position that consumers in Great Britain should not bear the cost of | :59:02. | :59:04. | |
Northern island providing additional support to onshore wind. We have | :59:05. | :59:08. | |
been clear about this pick up the process. The intent of | :59:09. | :59:22. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker this government is committed to the climate change | :59:23. | :59:26. | |
act in our target to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050. We will | :59:27. | :59:32. | |
meet our obligations and responsibilities by setting the | :59:33. | :59:34. | |
fifth carbon budget by the end of June this year, covering the period | :59:35. | :59:41. | |
220 2028-2032. As the committee on climate change has that, while we | :59:42. | :59:45. | |
are on course to me be second and third carbon budgets, the fourth | :59:46. | :59:48. | |
carbon budget is going to be tough to achieve, and we will set out our | :59:49. | :59:52. | |
proposals for meeting our targets in our newly emissions reduction plan. | :59:53. | :59:56. | |
Our working assumption is that this will be published at the end of this | :59:57. | :00:00. | |
year. Work on the fifth carbon budget is well under way across | :00:01. | :00:04. | |
government and has been progressing for over a year. I understand the | :00:05. | :00:08. | |
intentions of those website to amend this bill to change the way we count | :00:09. | :00:11. | |
our been omissions for the purposes of the fifth carbon budget, and of | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
course it is right that we keep our accounting practices under review. | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
I'm afraid that to have excepted the amendment to the bill on this point | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
I'm at this far into the fifth carbon budget process would have | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
rest serious delay at a time when the UK should show clear decisive | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
leadership in the aftermath of the Paris crime attains conference. | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
Before I conclude, Madam Deputy Speaker I was too express my thanks | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
to those that supported the proper scrutiny of this bill. Firstly to my | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
team on the front bench, the Minister of State for energy and | :00:48. | :00:49. | |
climate change, who has expertly steered this bill through the house | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
and to Lord Bob for his management of the bill and the other place. I | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
would like to thank my honourable friend for Blackpool North and | :01:00. | :01:01. | |
quickly, South East Cornwall for their excellent contribution and | :01:02. | :01:07. | |
support. We are very grateful. And I express my gratitude to members on | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
the opposition benches for their measured approach to the scrutiny of | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
this bill. Is there Tuesday that there have been moments of | :01:15. | :01:18. | |
disagreement -- is there Tuesday, but we have also agreed on many | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
issues including the need to swiftly complete the work started in the | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
previous Parliament to implement fully the recommendations of the | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
Wood review. I therefore think the honourable members for Wigan, | :01:31. | :01:32. | |
Southampton, test on a north-south, Brent North, Aberdeen South and go | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
Rich Preston and felt so for their considers grooming. -- considers | :01:39. | :01:47. | |
Britney. I am grateful to wear their participation in India outside the | :01:48. | :01:49. | |
chamber would have been very helpful. Ring the passage of this | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
bill my colleagues and I have listened carefully and where | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
appropriate we have made amendments or added details to provisions. | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
However, on the fundamental purpose of the provisions, we had and intend | :02:03. | :02:09. | |
to stand firm on our commitments. Question is to the bill being now | :02:10. | :02:16. | |
read a third time. Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker. Before | :02:17. | :02:18. | |
the house we have an energy bill that would be important exception of | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
the North Sea industries has absolutely nothing to say about the | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
major energy challenges that we face. It is a missed opportunity to | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
mend our broken energy market and to make good on the promise that the | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
Prime Minister gave warriors ago and he told this house he would | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
legislate to but every household in Britain onto the cheapest energy | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
tariff. And it's extraordinary that during the passage of this bill, we | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
have learned about this broken promise has caused written's | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
household and actual .7 billion every year and that once again this | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
energy bill led by the government lets the energy companies off the | :02:59. | :03:04. | |
hip -- 1.7 billion. Despite our best efforts, Madam Deputy Speaker it if | :03:05. | :03:07. | |
I link you on the growing risk of power shortages which is astonishing | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
when official figures for national grades show that this winter written | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
to be forced to rely on that that measures and imports from abroad | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
just to keep the lights on. During committee stage, we sought to | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
address this and we sought to address this especially given the | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
doubt that has been cast over Hinkley point the comedy failure of | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
which would blow a major hole in the government's energy policy. But | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
where is the plan B, Madam Deputy Speaker? Not in this bill. And | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
against this background of failure, the failure to get new power | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
stations built, it is such a shame that ministers rejected at our | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
attempt to try and amend the bill to correct this failure and to | :03:52. | :03:54. | |
incentivize a number of new gas plants by changing the design of the | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
failing and expensive capacity markets gained. Our proposal would | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
also have had the benefit of ending the absurd product is of increasing | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
household energy bills to provide generous hand-outs do dirty diesel | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
generators. So now there is nothing at all in this bill that will help | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
to address the power crunch and secure investment in new power | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
stations we so urgently and badly need. I thoroughly will give way. | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
Cammy honourable ladies just remind the House why when Labour was in | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
office for so many years they did not take any decisions to put in new | :04:31. | :04:37. | |
capacities? Oi is wrong not only on the spot on a number of other things | :04:38. | :04:40. | |
but let me stick to the point that he raised. To give you the example | :04:41. | :04:44. | |
of think we point the ill of labour in office that actually initiated | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
the new nuclear process, six years on from David Cameron taking office. | :04:50. | :04:52. | |
We have not seen any progress on that at all. And in fact I'm the | :04:53. | :04:59. | |
only new gas station under this government was initiated and | :05:00. | :05:01. | |
commissioned by the last Labour government so he is wrong on this, | :05:02. | :05:07. | |
as in so many other things. And remarkably, this bill will actually | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
make our energy security issues were and that is because it seeks to shut | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
down a year early, a major energy investment team that has been | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
successfully helping to get wind farms built. When farms are already | :05:19. | :05:24. | |
providing a substantial amount of electricity, enough power for more | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
than 8 million homes every year. But in this ideological crusade against | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
Green energy, the government don't want to increase this number even if | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
that means that they are sending our power supply into the right, and | :05:37. | :05:42. | |
they can protest, Madam Deputy Speaker but the reality is in front | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
of us. Not just the rough on the side of the house to see but for | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
their constituents to seek and to pay the price also and this is even | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
if it means retrospectively walking projects that are well advanced 3-D | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
development process even it means ruling out one of the cheapest | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
energy options available to us, and celebrating their manifesto promised | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
to cut emissions as cheaply as possible. Madam Deputy Speaker, | :06:10. | :06:12. | |
every single one of the amendments we have sought to make to this bill | :06:13. | :06:15. | |
have been about attracting new investment into new energy .txt to | :06:16. | :06:21. | |
create jobs and to improve our energy security and yet the | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
government has rejected all of them. Energy UK, the trade body that | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
represent businesses across the set are recently called for more clarity | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
from government about what is expected from companies in terms | :06:35. | :06:37. | |
every do think our been pollution. They've said it is even told that | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
the industry get a clear signal of the focus, direct in and beat of | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
travel to 2030 and beyond. It is hardly surprising that they want | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
more clarity because while ministers talk about their action on climate | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
change, they're simultaneously dismantling the clean energy schemes | :06:57. | :06:58. | |
that can help to address this problem, and we proposed to amend | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
this bill to respond to the call from business leaders by offering, | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
by requiring the secretary of state to offer clarity over the direction | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
of the speed of emissions reductions to 2030 and the government rejected | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
it. Together with other parties from across this house, we try to close a | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
loophole that would enable ministers to swear this circle group carbonate | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
counting -- accounting tricks and this move was rejected also. All of | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
this, all of this, all of this means more uncertainty for in investors | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
and not less. I welcome the fact that the government has accepted the | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
principle but forward by the Arnold member for Doncaster North, but | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
ultimately very must build a carbon neutral economy and I welcome the | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
spirit in which they accepted his amendment. But I also welcome the | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
basis on which they excepted its amendment, which is that we have to | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
develop a strategy that gives a clear signal to the top businesses | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
who are supporting his campaign as well as the leading environmental | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
containers who have shown that energy policy need be so contentious | :08:07. | :08:12. | |
because the truth is that few in this country beyond the conservative | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
backbench visit doubt the need to out on emissions. Only today Nasa | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
reported shocking levels of global warming and one top scientists said | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
this morning we are in a climate emergency now. But despite the | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
energy Secretary's words today, people will be left scratching their | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
hats over what exactly is the government's plan to make good on | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
this new commitment and the promises that the Prime Minister made at the | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
historic Paris summit in December. Take carbon capture and storage, the | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
government's own advisers say without this cutting edge | :08:47. | :08:49. | |
technology, the cost of achieving emission reduction in Britain could | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
double. Some experts say that without this technology, making good | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
on the Bears agreement may even be impossible, yet shamefully as the | :09:01. | :09:03. | |
member for Stockton North said, the Chancellor pulled the rug away from | :09:04. | :09:06. | |
business is war on the cusp of pioneering CCS projects in Yorkshire | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
and Scotland. Investment gone, jobs gone. The possibility of a new | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
maritime industry in our North Sea put on hold and that is why we | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
proposed a comprehensive new CCS strategy that be required within a | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
year to try and undo the damage caused by that decision and despite | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
strong rise party support, that reasonable proposal was rejected. | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
When this bill arrived here from the other house, it within a much better | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
state than we now find it. It makes it very difficult for us to support | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
it this evening. But, Madam Deputy Speaker, the low oil price means | :09:46. | :09:48. | |
that our North the industry is garbled in need of and deserving of | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
our support -- both in need of and deserving. We have all benefited | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
from the revenues produced from the North Sea in better times and we | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
only to them to support them now that times are hard. This bill does | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
contain important measures to act on the recommendations of the wood | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
review, and we can support workers in this crucial sector of our | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
economy. Yesterday, with my support, colleagues in Scottish Labour | :10:18. | :10:20. | |
rightly called for the government to go further and invest directly in | :10:21. | :10:26. | |
strategically important offshore assets in the North Sea. I hope the | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
energy secretary will support this, the fact is that there are | :10:31. | :10:33. | |
substantial reserves that remained unexploited and it's essential that | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
we work on cross party basis to support investment in these untapped | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
opportunities. For this reason alone we will not oppose this bill | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
tonight. But, I say to the energy secretary that the poverty of | :10:49. | :10:51. | |
ambition that is encapsulated by this bill is both increasingly clear | :10:52. | :10:58. | |
and increasingly untenable. To dismantle plan and with no plan B to | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
set in its place, to dock the challenges of the coming century and | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
to separate's based against the opportunities that the coming | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
century events, and I would like to thank the honourable member for | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
Southampton Test for Noris about and Barbara North and together we will | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
look to ministers in the future to do so much better than that. John | :11:21. | :11:28. | |
Redwood. Madam Deputy Speaker, I welcome this bill because I think it | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
is an attempt to deal with some of the damage that has regulated in | :11:32. | :11:37. | |
recent years from labour's policies and government when they were | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
married negligent of the need for more energy and for the dirty | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
supply. And because of some of the interventions also made by the | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
European Union. And I certainly welcome the cross party attempts to | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
breathe some life into the North Sea industry. This has been a crucial | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
industry over many years for us, it is going through a troubled time as | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
many pointed out. And anything that can be done IV oil and gas Authority | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
on the government directly is to be welcomed, I would have thought now | :12:10. | :12:12. | |
is a good time for example to remove the Trillium revenue tax, and | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
unpleasant tax introduced by the Labour Party. It does not yield any | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
revenue at the moment and it would be a good time to get rid of it as a | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
gesture showing when the good times return we do not want to protect, we | :12:29. | :12:31. | |
just want normal profit tax and revenue tax on North Sea activities. | :12:32. | :12:34. | |
And I hope he Chancellor will bear in mind the needs of the industry in | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
forthcoming budget because there are things that can be done on the tax | :12:39. | :12:41. | |
side to promote more investment against the background of a very | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
weak oil price which is no great incentive for making new things | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
happen. I hope that this bill will make a contribution to taking | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
seriously the issue of security supply. The government regularly | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
tells us that it wishes our country to be secure and that is a name | :13:02. | :13:04. | |
which I hope we shared across the chamber. One of the important ways | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
in which a country can become more secure is if they controlled energy | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
resources. United Kingdom is a relatively privileged country | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
geographically because it does have potential reserves of oil and gas | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
and coal on a rehab recently discovered the likelihood of new gas | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
reserves onshore which should be available to exploit in a sensible | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
way. As well as having plenty of water around so that we can have our | :13:34. | :13:39. | |
Job type renewables which are genuinely renewable and are | :13:40. | :13:41. | |
continuously available on my queen which is very unreliable. We have a | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
good debate about that earlier. -- I might wind which is unreliable. I | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
just as the government goes about implementing this bill they will | :13:52. | :13:54. | |
have the security of supply at the forefront of his mind. Where does | :13:55. | :14:02. | |
the security of supply line in the Prime Minister flying to Paris to | :14:03. | :14:09. | |
ask the French president to fund a nuclear power station that will | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
supply 7% of electricity and quite clearly France is not going to do | :14:14. | :14:19. | |
that was? That is something that has to be worked out between the | :14:20. | :14:22. | |
contracting parties, not something I have been urging them to do. I wish | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
them well with whatever negotiations are under way. I do accept that if | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
they can't find a way of producing relatively sensible price power | :14:30. | :14:36. | |
under a nuclear station and has also is of advantages for the security | :14:37. | :14:39. | |
supply and I assume they will make sure that all the technology and the | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
ability to control repair, maintain that station will rest in the United | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
Kingdom that you only have true security if you control the | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
technology and have the industrial resources to be able to build and | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
amended the facility that you are creating, we also need to bear in | :14:59. | :15:01. | |
mind weapons procurement as well. As a few wish to have a secure country | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
you need to have and it industry that can support it and is capable | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
and adversity of seeing you through. You cannot rely on imports for | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
everything. But in this crucial area of energy we are relying too much on | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
imports already, and I hope this bill will help us it off the habit | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
of thinking that we cannot magically rely on French electricity were | :15:23. | :15:25. | |
Russian gas indirectly through the European system. And on that point | :15:26. | :15:32. | |
can I add also that his right honourable friend the Chancellor of | :15:33. | :15:36. | |
the Exchequer seems bent on ending over the entire British nuclear | :15:37. | :15:42. | |
industry after France to China. Again, Madam Deputy Speaker I trust | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
not, I have not seen all the details of the documents. I'm sure we will | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
see more in due course as and when more decision is taken but again I | :15:50. | :15:52. | |
would urge my right honourable friend if negotiating such a deal to | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
make sure that we have control of and understanding of the technology. | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
I see some not on the front bench that that is exactly what they have | :16:03. | :16:05. | |
in mind. You do not have secure power if you are dependent on people | :16:06. | :16:09. | |
abroad to maintain your station and other crucial moments you do not | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
understand how to mend it, improve it or make it function. So of course | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
we need to probe to make sure the government is doing the right thing, | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
but you only get that security the control the technology. Let me go | :16:23. | :16:25. | |
back to the prior point about security through the import and our | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
own capability. I think we are becoming too dependent on imported | :16:31. | :16:33. | |
power and we do have to remember that our imports are to come from | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
the European continent it is an area start of energy in general with a | :16:38. | :16:41. | |
policy to make energy scares and expensive. But a confident in the | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
West does not get on very well of water didn't and indirectly relies | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
on Vladimir goodbyes and I gasped. This is not a strong suit he did | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
this and to be in and I want our country not to be in any way | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
relating on his gas or the general network on the continent which is | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
clearly weakened by the necessity to have Russian supplies in the eastern | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
part of the system. So, the UK as an island nation with access to such | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
riches both onshore and offshore and with the ability to generate more | :17:16. | :17:19. | |
genuine renewables that art continuously available, should be | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
able to have secure supply and have sufficient capacity and reserved | :17:24. | :17:30. | |
when arises. We wish to be a greater industrial power than we are, we are | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
the fifth largest economy in the world, but we are very dependent on | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
a very big service vector and our industrial sector under government | :17:39. | :17:41. | |
of all persuasions in the last 30 years has strong as a proportion. We | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
slap some great companies and technology but we need more of them, | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
we need to broaden the industrial base. And in order to have that | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
capability so that we can make our own power stations, our own | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
generators, our own engines, we need to make sure that we have sufficient | :17:58. | :18:03. | |
and cheap energy to fuel bills factories and those forges and | :18:04. | :18:06. | |
facilities and blast furnaces so that we have the capability over | :18:07. | :18:10. | |
Britain. And we meet tonight against the background of our skill energy | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
gravely at risk. One of the main contributing factors of the rest on | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
our steel industry is scares and dear energy. There are also chronic | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
problems with steel prices and Chinese competition but he began | :18:25. | :18:27. | |
with an energy problem and you cannot hope to be one of the big | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
world forces and energy intensive industries if you do not have more | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
plentiful energy at cheaper prices. So, Madam Deputy Speaker I wish this | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
bill well, I wish the Secretary of State well, I think the government | :18:42. | :18:43. | |
must have as its fundamental aim security of supply because without | :18:44. | :18:49. | |
secure energy on a country is very limited in its foreign-policy | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
options and has to tailor its the accordingly. ICS becoming too | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
dependent as we wish to correct our payments, getting into energy | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
service will be a very good contribution to that aim as well as | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
strengthening our diplomatic and political security. As we wish to | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
re-industrialized, we need more and cheaper energy. We are not going to | :19:11. | :19:14. | |
get more and cheaper energy on a diet of wind farms and regulated the | :19:15. | :19:20. | |
noble technologies that are not yet available and are very expensive and | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
it to cool to scale up. We can get that affordable energy if we extract | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
the oil gas and coal, process it in an environmentally friendly way to | :19:31. | :19:33. | |
the extent that you can, if we have more gas turbine power stations, if | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
we have more reliable base powered nations we are going to leave | :19:40. | :19:42. | |
ourselves vulnerable and insecure if we depend on a combination of | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
European imports and too much wind farms. So, maybe well and gas agency | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
do well, the authority do well, may it find ways of bringing on stream | :19:52. | :19:58. | |
the new reserves which we are discovering and may also find ways | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
of extending the lines of the existing fields and existing pool of | :20:03. | :20:07. | |
talent and expertise that we have particularly in Scotland, where we | :20:08. | :20:16. | |
need them still. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I think this process | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
is or myself been one of learning, and working out as you go along. I | :20:23. | :20:25. | |
would like to pay banks to my honourable friend for helping me | :20:26. | :20:31. | |
learn as we go along. It's been an interesting process and one in which | :20:32. | :20:35. | |
I am happy I will not be repeating anytime soon. Throughout this | :20:36. | :20:43. | |
process is natural in a political environment that we do focus on that | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
which divides us and there has been some significant and in certain | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
cases profound division on aspects of this bill. I do not wish to go | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
back into that at this stage, I think the process and discussions we | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
have had repeatedly roundabout onshore wind are a matter of record. | :21:01. | :21:04. | |
The last thing I would say is I'm aware that this will go back to the | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
House of Lords and a final plea to the Secretary of State to look once | :21:10. | :21:12. | |
again at some of the issues around about this tunnel we accept it as | :21:13. | :21:18. | |
something that the government has a mandate to do. We disagree with how | :21:19. | :21:24. | |
it's been done but if it's possible, please make it be done in the best | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
way possible. If there are concessions to be made in the Lord | :21:29. | :21:31. | |
leads do that and they doing out the benefits that can be done in terms | :21:32. | :21:34. | |
of that. I would also save through this debate we have had some very | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
good suggestions from a number of sides and individual contributions. | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
The government has said that they are prepared to listen to a number | :21:47. | :21:49. | |
of these suggestions and generally speaking there has been an | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
open-mindedness to be suggestions from honourable members across the | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
house and a suggestion that perhaps now is not the time for that to take | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
place. The time will come soon, and I would hope that that is a genuine | :22:02. | :22:05. | |
open-mindedness to some of these suggestions, particularly from my | :22:06. | :22:07. | |
point of view, the suggestions around about making sure that we | :22:08. | :22:15. | |
make the most of the situation and the opportunities arising at | :22:16. | :22:17. | |
decommissioned but I do think we need to create a stable and sensible | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
platform to ensure that the United Kingdom can develop carbon capture | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
and storage industry. I would like to focus on that this debate that | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
has received the least focus but from my point of view is the most | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
important and that is the creation of a oil and gas industry. For | :22:36. | :22:42. | |
something that has created broadly speaking unity across the South is | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
impressive in and of itself but what is perhaps more impressive to me is | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
that Aberdeen and in the Northeast of Scotland and as far as I can tell | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
the oil and gas industry at the length and breadth of the United | :22:56. | :22:58. | |
Kingdom there is a genuine sense that the OGA is the correct body, | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
broadly speaking with the correct tools at its disposal or so want | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
this bill has been completed at passage and properly equipped, there | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
is also great and tremendous support for Andy Samuel and his team in and | :23:14. | :23:17. | |
the work they're doing and I would like to pay tribute to him and all | :23:18. | :23:23. | |
of his staff. The oil and gas authority was envisaged in very | :23:24. | :23:27. | |
different times am I think the role that Andy Samuel and his team have | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
taken on was not what they expected and they have taken to it | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
impressively, with seared determination and had taken the | :23:37. | :23:38. | |
industry with them on a journey that I think none of them were begging to | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
go. The word they have done which is not really within it dot to foster | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
the collaborative peer at the industry needs if it is to ride out | :23:49. | :23:51. | |
this time is to be commended. That is how this industry is a will | :23:52. | :23:59. | |
survive. It is by working more constructively together, by stomping | :24:00. | :24:01. | |
some of the needless competition that adds unnecessarily to cost, | :24:02. | :24:08. | |
merely for the sake of differentiating themselves from | :24:09. | :24:12. | |
their competitors. The industry was a bright with vibrantly daft | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
practice that in Deputy Speaker, in terms of unnecessary... And by | :24:19. | :24:22. | |
bringing people together and facilitating the exchange of ideas | :24:23. | :24:29. | |
in a constructive way, the OGA has a major, major part to play in that. | :24:30. | :24:32. | |
It interesting that it has that's the support of this house but it | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
also has the support of the trade unions. It has the support of the | :24:38. | :24:40. | |
large and small players in the industry. This is something that we | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
need to continue, we need to maintain and I hope and wish the OGA | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
well in that effort. Do we have to recognise that the OGA was formed | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
and in implementing the wood review which has had cross party support as | :24:55. | :24:57. | |
well, they come from different times. The report was commissioned | :24:58. | :25:04. | |
and completed at a time when oil was trading above $100 a barrel. We | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
cannot accept Madam Deputy Speaker or expect the creation and the | :25:09. | :25:14. | |
formalisation of the OGA's powers to be enough to solve the difficulties | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
of oil and gas industry at this moment in time. I welcome the | :25:19. | :25:24. | |
comments from the member around about the need for fiscal | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
concessions and I would expect others, and see that the care is | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
seeking to come in and I would expect nothing less from him than to | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
be pushing for that also. This is critical. The oil and gas authority | :25:38. | :25:44. | |
will do what he can, industry is doing what it can. A 40% reduction | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
in their cost has been achieved. That is impressive, more needs to be | :25:50. | :25:54. | |
done from them, but the one thing that has not moved on since last May | :25:55. | :26:00. | |
and that is the changes to taxation. That was welcome then, but we have | :26:01. | :26:06. | |
to recognise that even then that was a different time and at $60 a barrel | :26:07. | :26:12. | |
as opposed to 40 now. These are changing times, the oil price has | :26:13. | :26:17. | |
been lower and lower for longer and longer than anyone expected. And to | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
expect the taxation regime from the time of super profits to work for | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
this base at this time would be naive at best. Madam Deputy Speaker, | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
the Chancellor in the budget on Wednesday will have the opportunity | :26:34. | :26:36. | |
to provide the oil and gas industry with a shot in the arm that it | :26:37. | :26:40. | |
requires will stop that opportunity cannot be missed. | :26:41. | :26:46. | |
Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker. As we've heard, this bill | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
is predominantly about setting up the oil and gas Authority. We need | :26:52. | :26:56. | |
to complete this task with a matter of urgency. The North Sea oil and | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
gas industry is facing significant challenges. There have been 75,000 | :27:01. | :27:04. | |
job losses in the past 15 months. Air is a risk that the whole | :27:05. | :27:10. | |
community along the North Sea could be very badly affected. The UK CS is | :27:11. | :27:18. | |
now in the basin, but the remaining reserves are significant and they | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
are vitally important to the UK and very different respects as many | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
different respects to be these resources are best managed through a | :27:28. | :27:34. | |
new tripartite approach, the oil and gas Authority, industry, and | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
Treasury working together. The oil and gas Authority, promoting the | :27:41. | :27:42. | |
backs of my station of economic recovery. Industry, working to | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
deliver efficiencies, building on the good work they have carried out | :27:48. | :27:53. | |
over the past, since 2014, of securing a 40% fall in operating | :27:54. | :27:58. | |
costs. And the Treasury, and this is a last-minute means, Madam Deputy | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
Speaker, to provide the low tax regime that will attract footloose | :28:04. | :28:10. | |
global investment. UKCS has so much to offer in terms of promoting | :28:11. | :28:18. | |
energy security and an uncertain world. Facilitating the transition | :28:19. | :28:21. | |
to a low carbon economy. And continuing to be the cornerstone of | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
British industry. Perhaps we could have done this better over the past | :28:27. | :28:33. | |
50 years. To do so now, it is vitally important that the ODA | :28:34. | :28:37. | |
promotes collaboration the whole time. It must be ingrained in their | :28:38. | :28:43. | |
DNA. It is not just collaboration between the ODA industry and | :28:44. | :28:50. | |
Treasury. It's collaboration with lean operations, as evidenced by the | :28:51. | :28:55. | |
partnership of those working together. It's collaboration between | :28:56. | :29:02. | |
operators and their service providers, building long-term | :29:03. | :29:04. | |
partnerships and learning lessons from other sectors, such as aviation | :29:05. | :29:10. | |
and the car industry. And it's collaboration with other sectors in | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
particular -- in particular, offshore wind. I urge the Chancellor | :29:15. | :29:21. | |
to consider introducing measures as encouraged in collaboration on | :29:22. | :29:24. | |
Wednesday. Madam Deputy Speaker, the North Sea oil and gas industry has | :29:25. | :29:32. | |
been the leading actor in the country's postwar economy. In the | :29:33. | :29:36. | |
past, we have, perhaps, taking it for granted. And perhaps at times | :29:37. | :29:43. | |
not managed it well. And if we had our time again, perhaps we would | :29:44. | :29:47. | |
have done it differently. It now needs us and we must not subtract | :29:48. | :29:52. | |
and work for it to make sure it can move forward. We must not let it | :29:53. | :29:57. | |
wither on the vine. We must grasp the opportunity tonight, and the | :29:58. | :30:04. | |
chance on Wednesday, to get the industry every opportunity to | :30:05. | :30:09. | |
survive and then thrive. We owe it to those working in the industry and | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
the communities in which they live. Madam Deputy Speaker, the final | :30:14. | :30:19. | |
chapter of oil and gas exploration on the UKCS must not be a harsh | :30:20. | :30:26. | |
bleak winter. It must be a good summer. Let's past this bill tonight | :30:27. | :30:30. | |
and get on with the task of securing that summer. Hear, hear! | :30:31. | :30:36. | |
The question is that the Bill be now read a third time. As many of that | :30:37. | :30:41. | |
opinion say ayes, of the contrary know. The ayes have it. The ayes | :30:42. | :30:51. | |
have it. We now come to motion number three on tax credits, | :30:52. | :30:55. | |
Minister to move. I beg to move the. The question is as on the order | :30:56. | :30:58. | |
papers, as many that opinion say ayes. Ayes! Of the contrary, no. | :30:59. | :32:46. | |
Order! The question is as on the order paper on motion number three | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
on tax credits, as many of that opinion say ayes. Ayes! On the | :32:52. | :33:02. | |
contrary, no. No. Tell us of the ayes, and tell us of the nose. | :33:03. | :39:07. | |
Order, order! The ayes to the right, 272. The know to the left, 228. | :39:08. | :43:23. | |
The ayes to the right, 200 72. The noes to the left, 228 copy Doak. The | :43:24. | :43:35. | |
ayes have it, the ayes have it. Unlock. We now come to motion number | :43:36. | :43:39. | |
four relating to the petitions committee. Mr Bilic -- Bill Wickett. | :43:40. | :43:50. | |
Of the contrary, no. The ayes have it, the ayes have it. Potentia, | :43:51. | :43:55. | |
Helen Hayes. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I were the micronized on | :43:56. | :44:03. | |
behalf of my constituents Isabel guarded and their son, Matthew | :44:04. | :44:06. | |
Garnett. Isabel guarded is sitting in the public now read this evening. | :44:07. | :44:10. | |
The petition of Isabel and Robert Garnett declares that the | :44:11. | :44:15. | |
petitioner's son, Matthew Garnett, had been detained under the mental | :44:16. | :44:18. | |
health act in an emergency transitional psychiatric intensive | :44:19. | :44:23. | |
care unit for six months. Further that he is not receiving appropriate | :44:24. | :44:26. | |
care or treatment am a further that he appears to be regressing, which | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
is causing enormous distress to his family. Further that he set recently | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
sustained a broken wrist, further that a specialist facility in North | :44:35. | :44:42. | |
Hampton accepted his referral in August, 2015, and that Matthew | :44:43. | :44:45. | |
urgently needs to be admitted to this facility so that he can be | :44:46. | :44:48. | |
properly assessed and treated copied and not that an petition of the same | :44:49. | :44:54. | |
nature has received 262,636 signatories. The petition is | :44:55. | :44:59. | |
therefore request. This house are just the government to look urgently | :45:00. | :45:04. | |
at this case and ensure that a bed can be made available for Matthew | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
Garnett at this place as soon as possible and to take action to | :45:10. | :45:12. | |
adjust the slider issue of inpatient services for children and | :45:13. | :45:15. | |
adolescents with mental health difficulties. The petition remains, | :45:16. | :45:18. | |
etc. Hear, hear! Petition. Appropriate mental health | :45:19. | :45:41. | |
treatment for Matthew Garnett. I beg to move that this House do now | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
adjourn. The question is that this House do now adjourn. Mr Ian Liddell | :45:47. | :45:52. | |
Grainger. Hear, hear! Madam Deputy Speaker, thank you very | :45:53. | :45:56. | |
much indeed. Can I say it is a considerable honour to be able to | :45:57. | :46:00. | |
address this house tonight in a real pleasure I might as today is | :46:01. | :46:03. | |
Commonwealth day. I'm afraid it strongly to a close. I think it's a | :46:04. | :46:09. | |
highly tropical and a good time. Something I didn't realise is that | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
my honourable friend who will be replying, is a longest serving | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
Commonwealth Minister, for years, so he's done extremely well. -- four | :46:19. | :46:25. | |
years. That's got to be some sort of record, so more than one celebration | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
for he served in one place. Our Commonwealth unites 2 billion | :46:31. | :46:34. | |
people. 53 nations around the world. Today, we have been somewhere in the | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
fact that, even though we all come from different backgrounds, we are | :46:40. | :46:42. | |
joined very purposely together for a single purpose. The Commonwealth's | :46:43. | :46:47. | |
charter declares that everyone is equal and deserves to be treated | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
fairly regardless to race, age, gender, believe, and never mind you | :46:52. | :46:59. | |
whether we are poor or rich. These are fine principles and I will say | :47:00. | :47:01. | |
to this house, there were welling upon. It's too easy to smite the | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
concept of Commonwealth. The fact that he carries on successfully for | :47:08. | :47:12. | |
so many years is a constant spasm to certain people. What is it for? What | :47:13. | :47:18. | |
does it do? Why do we still need a? I will state my honourable friend | :47:19. | :47:21. | |
who was the chairman will for me will say it can be very annoying | :47:22. | :47:28. | |
annoying. Give me one reason for terracing this Commonwealth. The | :47:29. | :47:32. | |
huge financial opportunities it can bring. I will be delighted, thank | :47:33. | :47:38. | |
you. Thank you for bringing this to House for consideration. Everyone of | :47:39. | :47:40. | |
us here will be able to support the Commonwealth. Duo's fastest-growing | :47:41. | :47:45. | |
economies and markets are in the Commonwealth. With the member agreed | :47:46. | :47:50. | |
that we can reignite our bountiful relationship with our natural allies | :47:51. | :47:53. | |
and friends throughout the Commonwealth in the world with Mac I | :47:54. | :47:59. | |
think the honourable member for that intervention. He is absolutely | :48:00. | :48:02. | |
right. The startling affect from the Commonwealth from the old Empire to | :48:03. | :48:06. | |
now and what we have achieved in harmonization, governance, | :48:07. | :48:10. | |
friendship, has been remarkable. The point he is making, just literally | :48:11. | :48:16. | |
going on to say, it exactly this, India is now one of the world's | :48:17. | :48:20. | |
leading economies as a very good example. I think the honourable | :48:21. | :48:25. | |
member for it. It is no accident the countries which follow the | :48:26. | :48:27. | |
Westminster model of democracy tend to have ambitions to grow and to | :48:28. | :48:33. | |
prosper. If you look at the best academic Index of economic progress | :48:34. | :48:41. | |
among African nations, it is all the Commonwealth members that emerge in | :48:42. | :48:43. | |
front. That is why the city of London has had a very long and soft | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
spot for the Commonwealth. Our business and financial institutions | :48:49. | :48:52. | |
have long legs throughout this family of nations. They need our | :48:53. | :48:58. | |
expertise, and we may be able to reap the benefits of the prosperity | :48:59. | :49:05. | |
it brings to our nations. Of course, I give way. Think the Member for | :49:06. | :49:08. | |
raising the issue for the city of London. He would know that this week | :49:09. | :49:12. | |
the city of London it's going to celebrate her Majesty's 90th | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
anniversary I am fighting the heads of the Commonwealth to the city, | :49:18. | :49:20. | |
which of course helps to promote the great lengths with the city has had | :49:21. | :49:27. | |
since 1926 in organising numerous events. Does he agree that there is | :49:28. | :49:31. | |
one country missing in all of this? And that the Republic of Ireland | :49:32. | :49:34. | |
should come back into the Commonwealth. And be the 54th | :49:35. | :49:40. | |
country, helping that friendship and that fraternity. Hear, hear! | :49:41. | :49:45. | |
I think the honourable member. I think it is to say that her | :49:46. | :49:49. | |
Majesty's trip to the Republic of Ireland has been some of these | :49:50. | :49:52. | |
greatest success, diplomatic stories of the last two years. I believe her | :49:53. | :49:56. | |
Majesty has now been leader of the Commonwealth for some 48 years? 42 | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
years. Something like that, an enormous time. Her Majesty has never | :50:03. | :50:06. | |
put a foot wrong with the common wealth. 52 years, I think everyone | :50:07. | :50:14. | |
from sedentary position, it shows my public school upbringings, I didn't | :50:15. | :50:18. | |
know that at all. Her Majesty has absolutely been a brick, a rock and | :50:19. | :50:21. | |
the person we have all built this around. The times that have been | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
very bad, and good, she has never wavered for the absolute | :50:27. | :50:28. | |
understanding of the Commonwealth. I know my honourable friend, who was | :50:29. | :50:32. | |
today at the Abbey to support her Majesty and the service, is | :50:33. | :50:37. | |
absolutely of the same opinion. Happy birthday, and long may she | :50:38. | :50:43. | |
reign. I give way. Seeing as we are taking bids on membership of the | :50:44. | :50:47. | |
Commonwealth, this might be an opportunity to put on record that of | :50:48. | :50:50. | |
course, the white paper for independence published by the | :50:51. | :50:53. | |
Scottish Government in advance to be 2014 referendums dated that Scotland | :50:54. | :50:58. | |
will probably -- probably be an independent member of the | :50:59. | :51:00. | |
Commonwealth with the queen as the head of state. People more | :51:01. | :51:05. | |
appropriate before today come in the honourable members expressed the | :51:06. | :51:08. | |
value of the Commonwealth and the role that we can all play in that | :51:09. | :51:13. | |
family of nations. I expressed the XMP sentiments in that regard. | :51:14. | :51:16. | |
Particularly take note of the relationship we have with Malawi as | :51:17. | :51:23. | |
a Commonwealth member, so it's very important that we are marking the | :51:24. | :51:29. | |
day with this debate. -- SNP. This is a group of nations as the | :51:30. | :51:32. | |
Commonwealth is a group of nations. That is the beauty of this, it is a | :51:33. | :51:36. | |
family of evil that are bound together by historical in Amelie, | :51:37. | :51:39. | |
which have now become a Commonwealth and a trade of prosperity and I'm | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
attending -- a family of people. The long history Scotland has got with | :51:45. | :51:48. | |
Malawi is an example of that. Any nation can make friends with any | :51:49. | :51:51. | |
other nation. We welcome it, we do everything we can to be part of | :51:52. | :51:54. | |
that. It is important because it does bring that entire copies of the | :51:55. | :52:03. | |
world, which we strive, to gather and it makes it a smaller place. | :52:04. | :52:09. | |
Yes, of course I will. I'm grateful to him for giving way. He's being | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
generous and he is right to be on Commonwealth Bank. This is a debate | :52:14. | :52:17. | |
what was instigated some five years ago. I think at the time when I | :52:18. | :52:21. | |
became founder chairman of the all party group on the Commonwealth, to | :52:22. | :52:24. | |
have a Commonwealth debate on Commonwealth day. He is quite right | :52:25. | :52:27. | |
to highlight both the value of the Commonwealth across the world and | :52:28. | :52:30. | |
the importance of the head of Commonwealth, the remarkable service | :52:31. | :52:33. | |
she has given. Woody also, today, pay tribute to the outgoing | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
Secretary-General of the Commonwealth who has been a tireless | :52:40. | :52:43. | |
advocate for the Commonwealth and congratulate also his successor, | :52:44. | :52:47. | |
Patricia Scotland who will become the next secretary-general. This is | :52:48. | :52:50. | |
an important role and we should be proud member of the House of Lords | :52:51. | :52:53. | |
is taking this position for the first time. Hear, hear! | :52:54. | :52:56. | |
ITB Berrer this of Scotland would be taking interest in the debate, but | :52:57. | :53:01. | |
also might honourable friend is quite right. I should have | :53:02. | :53:07. | |
mentioned... It is a wonderful organisation. The Commonwealth, the | :53:08. | :53:10. | |
last five years have been very ably chaired by my honourable friend. A | :53:11. | :53:19. | |
remarkable job has been done. Time in and out, you're in and out with | :53:20. | :53:22. | |
the same agenda that we celebrate, a remarkable achievement. I'm going to | :53:23. | :53:29. | |
continue, if I may, just for a few minutes, this week the city of | :53:30. | :53:32. | |
London is playing house to be Commonwealth High Commissioners as a | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
mark of Commonwealth day. And a subregion of her Majesty's | :53:37. | :53:44. | |
forthcoming might 90th birthday. If you turn up at the Commonwealth | :53:45. | :53:48. | |
house of government conference, the city of London is always there as | :53:49. | :53:51. | |
well. Frankly, if the city of London gives the Commonwealth's backing | :53:52. | :53:55. | |
than I suspect the rest of us should do it as well. The Commonwealth's | :53:56. | :54:00. | |
poetry Association believes strongly in a stable government and high | :54:01. | :54:05. | |
parliamentary standards and that he leads to confidence, investment, job | :54:06. | :54:07. | |
creation and ultimately a better life for all people. I can find no | :54:08. | :54:14. | |
better advocate for the continuation of Commonwealth than the very person | :54:15. | :54:18. | |
who sat on its head since her coronation. If I may quote her | :54:19. | :54:22. | |
Majesty, she said "The Commonwealth has the power to enrich us all. In | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
an uncertain world, it gives us a good reason to keep on talking. " | :54:28. | :54:33. | |
I'm into all of that. Here we appreciate the value of talking and | :54:34. | :54:41. | |
sharing ideas. Nurturing by the Missouri government over centuries. | :54:42. | :54:47. | |
Many of independent nations have appeared and have chose to adopt the | :54:48. | :54:53. | |
Westminster system. Is not surprising that was Mr, with all its | :54:54. | :54:58. | |
failings, has a great deal going for it. We learned to respect other | :54:59. | :55:04. | |
people's point of use and develop an effective system for scrutinising | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
laws and holding government and ministers to account. Whatever our | :55:10. | :55:12. | |
fault, we always tried to make democracy work. The Commonwealth | :55:13. | :55:18. | |
Parliamentary Association was established 105 years ago, to link | :55:19. | :55:24. | |
parliamentary, parliaments, throughout the Commonwealth and to | :55:25. | :55:27. | |
share all the positive lessons of good governance. This is a splendid | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
admission, rightly so, but it is a very tall order. I give great | :55:33. | :55:38. | |
pleasure to the honourable Lady. -- I give way. I'm very grateful. I | :55:39. | :55:45. | |
think I can call him my honourable friend, and I also want to | :55:46. | :55:48. | |
congratulate him on securing this really important debate on | :55:49. | :55:53. | |
Commonwealth day. Would he agree with me that the theme of the | :55:54. | :55:59. | |
Commonwealth this year, being inclusivity, is a very important | :56:00. | :56:01. | |
thing for us because we obviously want to learn and share best | :56:02. | :56:06. | |
practice right across the Commonwealth. It would be | :56:07. | :56:09. | |
particularly agree with me that this is an important year for | :56:10. | :56:12. | |
Commonwealth women parliamentarians him as we elect a new chair and | :56:13. | :56:19. | |
hopefully a chair who will take the organisation forward in securing | :56:20. | :56:21. | |
better representation of women in the parliaments and assemblies as | :56:22. | :56:25. | |
well, throughout the Commonwealth? Hear, hear! | :56:26. | :56:29. | |
I'm going to have to embarrass the honourable Lady, terribly, but with | :56:30. | :56:34. | |
the honourable Lady's input into champion in women's writes for the | :56:35. | :56:38. | |
Commonwealth, I don't think we will be where we are today -- without her | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
input. She has done in the Markle job. Just this morning I shared a | :56:45. | :56:47. | |
platform with the honourable Lady, who I will say is suffering from | :56:48. | :56:56. | |
smite the Max like snivel. For young parliamentarians in the future. She | :56:57. | :57:01. | |
was asked about women's issues and the way that women interface with | :57:02. | :57:04. | |
it, not just our parliament but many others. The honourable Lady gave a | :57:05. | :57:07. | |
very robust and absolutely correct view for younger people of the | :57:08. | :57:13. | |
challenges we all face in this house and across the world in empowering | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
women, but I cannot so more than the honourable Lady has been a great | :57:19. | :57:23. | |
friend to be CPA and will be continuing to be so. I hope she gets | :57:24. | :57:25. | |
well very so. We are talking about bringing around | :57:26. | :57:36. | |
thousands of parliamentarians from a hundred different lawmaking bodies. | :57:37. | :57:39. | |
Someone suggestions and practices all their own and others relatively | :57:40. | :57:42. | |
new and untested. And the last ten years, friends and, more than 15 new | :57:43. | :57:47. | |
parliament and lawmaking parties have joined were rejoined the CPA. | :57:48. | :57:53. | |
PG is now back in the fold after democratic elections a few euros | :57:54. | :57:58. | |
ago, and for one that is the most recent new member that we have -- | :57:59. | :58:02. | |
Rwanda. If I was to realise the 83rd membership it would start with all | :58:03. | :58:06. | |
zoning, and I went in the channel, just ten miles off the French coast | :58:07. | :58:10. | |
and stretching all the way to the MBA and South Africa. In fact, I | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
will be visiting Zambia in the next two days on another mission but | :58:16. | :58:20. | |
obviously to also speak to my Commonwealth partners when I am | :58:21. | :58:24. | |
there. The honourable ladies. He is making an excellent beach and ask | :58:25. | :58:30. | |
someone who's family originates from Goa in India and also was born in a | :58:31. | :58:35. | |
British protectorate I am well aware of the importance of a club as | :58:36. | :58:40. | |
Groucho Marx would say, I would not want to belong to a club that would | :58:41. | :58:44. | |
have me as a member but actually we are part of a very important club in | :58:45. | :58:47. | |
the Commonwealth. And also we are the interface, testing not agree, | :58:48. | :58:53. | |
with the European Union -- does he not agree, and places us in a grey | :58:54. | :58:58. | |
position. Would you join me in thanking the staff of the CPA who | :58:59. | :59:02. | |
organise all these visit and help the rest of the world come to see | :59:03. | :59:05. | |
what it's like to live under a will of law in this country? I thank the | :59:06. | :59:11. | |
honourable ladies in her background is obviously proved that anybody | :59:12. | :59:14. | |
from anywhere can be part of this marvellous family. It is a wonderful | :59:15. | :59:22. | |
family. She's absolutely right, there is a remarkable staff here who | :59:23. | :59:26. | |
do an incredible job and today they have literally gone from conferences | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
to seminars to drinks party to everything else and it's been | :59:32. | :59:34. | |
remarkable. There's not many weeks, and I'm sure we can count him out | :59:35. | :59:38. | |
where there is not somebody coming to town to talk, be they a High | :59:39. | :59:43. | |
Commissioner, an ambassador or a group of parliamentarians. That is | :59:44. | :59:46. | |
the great beauty of us. They always know that our door is open and we | :59:47. | :59:51. | |
always love to have a conversation with our friends and our family. The | :59:52. | :59:55. | |
CPA branch elected me chairman last year and it that the responsibility | :59:56. | :59:59. | |
with enthusiasm but I will say with some trepidation. It is one thing | :00:00. | :00:03. | |
glancing at the CPA from the outside, but quite another from | :00:04. | :00:05. | |
inside and obviously getting involved in the inner workings of | :00:06. | :00:12. | |
the CPA. My thanks to the knowledge and efficiency of the superb CB | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
eight team I hope I managed to get a grip of some of summit. But they do | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
deserve that and so does the whole committee of the CPA without whom | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
the CPA would not operate will stop the work that goes in from | :00:26. | :00:27. | |
honourable members in both this place and the other plays is | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
absolutely crucial to the fair running of it and I am very grateful | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
to everybody. In fact, the CPA UK has just been recognised by | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
investors of people scheme for outstanding levels of people | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
management am a well done. We happen to be the most active branch under | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
the CPA umbrella and what a big umbrella it is. The sheer numbers of | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
Commonwealth nations demands a great executive committee to manage it. | :00:54. | :01:02. | |
There are no yes of course. It is fair and important that we have just | :01:03. | :01:04. | |
recorded and entered as well that rate in and the United Kingdom of | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
Great Britain and Northern Ireland to their Christian friends will they | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
have and are the Commonwealth really put Christianity to really many | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
parts of the world where it is today and where it is growing. I think | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
when it comes to the Commonwealth and Christian visible badger at it | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
and driven forward as well. That is a good point. We have had today a | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
wonderful service in Westminster Abbey, unfortunately I was chairing | :01:29. | :01:30. | |
one of the competence. My honourable friend was there and was attending, | :01:31. | :01:36. | |
her Majesty obviously of his Royal highness the Duke of Edinburgh and | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
it is a wonderful get-together. This was based on a lot of indispensable. | :01:41. | :01:46. | |
Missionaries who in many ways jailbreak what was going on through | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
the end days and then to the Commonwealth. You can look back at | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
some amazing people who went to parts which nobody else would go to | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
and that that and we still do today. Although, you have to say that in | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
certain parts of the world there are tensions, we have got to be honest | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
about that, but we still talk. And the Archbishop of Canterbury and | :02:07. | :02:08. | |
many other churches work together to try to better people's lives so and | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
we have a disagreement let's keep talking. I think your point is | :02:15. | :02:23. | |
pertinent and absolutely correct. The rest on the belly of the CPA | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
ensures it is geared on a steady course and falls to the director | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
general, secretary-general and is the start of the year we do have a | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
new man at this awareness. Some of the wider experience of government | :02:35. | :02:38. | |
and someone who already knows the CPA inside out and has been already | :02:39. | :02:44. | |
involved in the legal licenses of the organisation. Somebody who I can | :02:45. | :02:47. | |
say have an enormous drive and vision to carry this international | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
organisation forward. His mission is to make the CPA fit for the 21st | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
century. I believe strongly, and I hope the house joins me which will | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
wholeheartedly applaud this aspiration. It is a sobering fact | :03:04. | :03:07. | |
that in my constituency of Bridgewater and West Somerset, many | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
young people know little about Commonwealth let alone the | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
Commonwealth Parliament jury Association. I am sorry to say there | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
is a wide canyon of ignorance among young people today. I'm told that a | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
survey was recently conducted in Jamaica to discover if young people | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
knew who was in charge of the Commonwealth. 25% said it was Barack | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
Obama. Perhaps it is a blessing they did not say Donald Trump. But when | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
the pollsters asked if the Commonwealth actually did -- what | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
the Commonwealth that most young Jamaicans but it was tasked with | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
running the Commonwealth games. We have a lot to do. The CPA has to | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
spread the word far more effectively and to seek and when practical | :03:48. | :03:54. | |
support of the young. People under 30 now represent a majority of all | :03:55. | :03:57. | |
Commonwealth citizens. We have to find ways of making our work visible | :03:58. | :04:01. | |
and relevant to them. Already I'm pleased to tell you that things are | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
beginning to move. Madam Deputy Speaker, the CPA has lost a popular | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
road show designed to engage with schools and universities right | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
across the Commonwealth. We are trying to prove that we are not just | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
about motherhood and apple pie, while highlighting parts of our work | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
that can capture the imagination of young people. We are showing how we | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
can tackle corruption by using the rule of law. There's a lot more to | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
these road shows of course, which is why the CPA is getting on top of the | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
digital world and its weeding its message and likes on Facebook and | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
hosting its own YouTube channel. We are all doing a great deal to prompt | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
gender equality, much a great tribute to my honourable fair friend | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
again. It is worked desperately needing to be done because women are | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
still badly underrepresented in parliament across the Commonwealth. | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
The CPA has been effective in individual chairwoman and it is | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
bigger of the Parliament Bangladesh who has been an incredible champion | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
to women back to the CPA and everyone else as well and I can't | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
say I hope she is smiling at the moment because she has a lot to | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
smile about. A remarkable person. The CPA Eley promotes female | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
involvement throughout the Commonwealth. The women's | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
parliamentary group and it's very positive views that a woman has been | :05:20. | :05:22. | |
appointed a new secretary-general at the command -- of the Commonwealth | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
as we have heard. Surely interleave the shaping of the CPA is attending | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
for the better. I CPA died this week alone is enough to prove that we not | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
sitting back and letting the world go nor will he ever. The UK branch | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
is hosting a delegation for the new Canadian parliament, also running a | :05:43. | :05:50. | |
unique international offerings on... I give way to the honourable Lady. | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
Wood sorry, I did not mean to interrupt like that because actually | :05:55. | :06:01. | |
I was just rising to say to him I want to picture Butte to him for all | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
of the work that he has done. In support as the WPA and of coarse the | :06:07. | :06:13. | |
chair of the international chair person -- the WP, because she is | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
bringing enormous changes in CPA as is of course the new secretary | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
general who I also think we should welcome to his post to be at this | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
evening and we are expecting great things of them. I also want to pay | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
to my right honourable friend because, both gentlemen have led and | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
are leading the CPA, I think, to very very good Ings indeed and we | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
look forward to enormous progress being made in the year across a | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
whole range of areas to do with enhancing our systems of governance | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
and accountability and tackling corruption throughout the | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
Commonwealth. Madam Deputy Speaker I do apologise again I cannot quite | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
work out what she was waving at. It's very nice to be way that I can | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
tell you. And I think the honourable Lee again but I think we all know | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
this is a huge team effort. I know that our secretary-general and many | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
others take keen interest to what we do as a body but it is important | :07:17. | :07:19. | |
that we support each other and the work that has been done, even since | :07:20. | :07:23. | |
he has been here has been truly remarkable. Again, I do pay tribute | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
to the entire team in the CPA because without them we would not | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
have work to do today and he does stand and I completely made a mess | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
of a thing earlier when he had to step in and say these are very | :07:38. | :07:40. | |
grateful to being saved on a regular basis by Andrew. But I think the | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
honourable Lady is right. We have a lot of work to do where women are | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
concerned and many others and the challenges we are realistic, we know | :07:49. | :07:51. | |
what they are, we know what we got to do to try and change it and we | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
will continue to always strive for that because that is what our | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
resource is. It is gender balance and gender understanding and we are | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
doing that, I always pictured Beta the honourable ladies for the work | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
she had done in I'm very grateful. He's very kind. The critical issue, | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
as he rightly highlighted earlier is how the younger generation of people | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
in the Commonwealth around the world can be excited and motivated and | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
inspired by an ideal which did Ings buyer and earlier generation. And he | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
gives some examples of things that he believes we can all do in the | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
Commonwealth to help that process along? I hesitate to go on all night | :08:31. | :08:39. | |
but it is a lovely question because it's the pertinent one. What is the | :08:40. | :08:41. | |
Commonwealth? It's about understanding, tolerance, | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
governance, law, order, non-corruption, standing for your | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
fellow man or women, does not matter what you are, your background or | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
religion does not make any difference. We are family of nations | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
that are bound together by one common cause which is working | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
together to make sure that we achieved what the ideals were sent | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
out all those years ago. And I think also, to bring the very best of | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
human nature to bear at all stages and that is what this is about. I | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
meet the most remarkable incredible people. I know we all do. We have | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
had our ups and downs but at the end of the day all parliamentarians are | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
interesting and in a more than the Commonwealth and I think it is a | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
piece to be celebrated. He goes on about the Commonwealth games and of | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
course the most recent were held in my city, the great city of Glasgow | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
and as well as being a celebration of sporting endeavour and peaceful | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
competition between nations, it brings people from all over the | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
world and particularly from all over the Commonwealth to share the | :09:46. | :09:48. | |
cultures in one place. I think when the honourable gentleman makes the | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
point about the practical implications of and practical | :09:53. | :09:55. | |
benefits of the Commonwealth the Commonwealth games are a | :09:56. | :09:58. | |
manifestation of that and ought to be recognised. Of course, Scotland | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
while we are doing the alphabet of nations is also a member of the | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
Commonwealth Parliamentary positions and is not a full-fledged member of | :10:07. | :10:09. | |
the Commonwealth. I must say the very first Commonwealth games I went | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
to was in Edinburgh as a boy. Many years ago. The Glasgow Commonwealth | :10:15. | :10:17. | |
games were exemplary, handled beautifully. It was the family | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
enjoying itself in many ways. The sport was incredible, it was | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
remarkable, knows that ladders or anything like that inside. We have a | :10:26. | :10:28. | |
very good organisation that runs it and it is always a credit. And | :10:29. | :10:33. | |
Glasgow did an incredible job and nobody will ever take that away in | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
I'm very grateful for all they did. Again it showed the Commonwealth at | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
its very best, as a group of nations were very good at what they do. What | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
other organisation has a range of games which is free of all the other | :10:45. | :10:47. | |
things we see in so many sports tainted with. Congratulations. He is | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
quite white to highlight the success of the gas quite right to have a B | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
success of the Commonwealth games. How about a Commonwealth music | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
festival because we know that sport and music are the two things that | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
are most powerfully involving the younger generation. The lady from a | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
sedentary position that the ball, I think the entire world plays | :11:12. | :11:14. | |
football but I think music from a cost of Commonwealth would be | :11:15. | :11:17. | |
absolutely incredible. So many times we have been on competent where we | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
have been entertained so beautifully by local bands, sometimes tribes | :11:22. | :11:28. | |
even who are quite incredible. And richness of music just crosses all | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
boundaries, it does not matter if you can understand the words or not. | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
It is the beat and the rhythm and all the rest and I think that's a | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
wonderful idea. I hesitate to say to injured tomorrow perhaps we should | :11:43. | :11:44. | |
arrange a music conference for the whole of the Commonwealth before he | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
has a heart attack but it is a lovely idea. Again, football, I | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
think the rules of the ball were set in this country I think. I maybe | :11:53. | :11:55. | |
wrong on that but I think they were and again it a great level. But if I | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
may just finish off. Lastly we were also involved in celebrating | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
international women's day last week and that the speaker was very kind | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
to let us have his apartment for a drink party to end it all. It was so | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
well attended and so fascinating, the interesting and a very lovely | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
day. Next week, there's so much in the pipeline. We are helping out in | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
one of Africa Bath, Latin America's poorest countries. The aim is to | :12:23. | :12:25. | |
assist in a new multiracial coalition government building | :12:26. | :12:28. | |
effective democratic -- effective democratic systems. Working with the | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
home office to combat legal slavery. The idea is to enable Parliamentary | :12:34. | :12:36. | |
clerks than the Commonwealth countries to come to Westminster on | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
the comment and learn how to adapt legislation he's back on. We also | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
tried to get some new project off the ground like an international | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
Parliamentary seminar and lecture reform, a cyber security workshop | :12:52. | :12:54. | |
for Commonwealth ministers. There's even a project to open doors outside | :12:55. | :12:57. | |
the Commonwealth and allow representatives from target | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
countries like Iraq and Afghanistan to attend our seminars. We are | :13:02. | :13:04. | |
trying to build something bigger, stronger and better to help... I'm | :13:05. | :13:13. | |
so grateful to the horrible gentleman for giving way. He's | :13:14. | :13:16. | |
really been most generous and I'm very grateful. I just thought that | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
the list he's reading is really quite extraordinary and shows the | :13:22. | :13:24. | |
huge diverse city of different issues that the Commonwealth prime | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
injury Association is trying to tackle and to get really serious | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
discussions and sharing of the good practices going on and I just want | :13:36. | :13:38. | |
to use this opportunity to thank the staff again, Andrew and all his | :13:39. | :13:42. | |
staff because they are extremely busy putting these very important | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
programmes together. Hopefully with good that comes in terms of | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
improving our governance. I can echo that. He sat in some cases have very | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
few days to put that together. They have been irrevocable jobs. We have | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
a superb staff and they are so willing. If anyone has a chance and | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
want to see what the CPA is it worth looking into that world and the work | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
they do. It's truly remarkable. But that is the future, the future is | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
taking workshops, encouraging people to do these things and if we do it | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
others will follow and we want to make sure people understand that we | :14:17. | :14:19. | |
are proactive in the 21st century and we are leading the charge of | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
proactive democracy around the world and that I think is something we can | :14:25. | :14:27. | |
only aspire and I think the honourable Lady for her | :14:28. | :14:30. | |
intervention. She is of course absolutely right. We are going to | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
help abused and change the Commonwealth. And the new outcrops | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
of democracy outside. As ever we will rely on patience and an awful | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
lot of dialogue. But this is what the Commonwealth is really about and | :14:44. | :14:46. | |
I would like to finish this as her Majesty put it, it's only through | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
dialogue that we can protect ourselves against the dangers that | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
so easily arise. When we fail to talk, only to see another persons | :14:55. | :14:58. | |
point of view we fail. Madam Deputy Speaker. And grateful for this | :14:59. | :15:07. | |
opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Commonwealth. I'm | :15:08. | :15:13. | |
delighted that my honourable friend has been able to secure a slot, | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
actually on the floor of the house and blessed with the chance and good | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
fortune that it is an extended debate beyond the half hour that it | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
might otherwise have been what has given opportunity for other | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
honourable colleagues and friends to take part. I actually think it is a | :15:30. | :15:37. | |
pity that on an annual basis, there is not a debate on a Commonwealth | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
theme in Government time, I think to demonstrate symbolically that we are | :15:43. | :15:48. | |
taking the Commonwealth seriously and it is an opportunity for all | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
members in the house to make a contribution on some particular | :15:53. | :15:55. | |
aspect of Commonwealth matters that are of concern to them. But I'm | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
grateful when my time for the back page, business committee to give us | :16:00. | :16:07. | |
opportunities and Madam Deputy Speaker my honourable friend have | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
also managed to ensure that the flame continues to burn. And I think | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
one of my aims, one of the messages I tried to put across was that in | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
every part of the Commonwealth, we should be having a debate about the | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
Commonwealth from whatever angle in each Parliament. That is the way to | :16:26. | :16:32. | |
give prominence to the fact that we are all members of that association | :16:33. | :16:36. | |
and that we believe in it. Now today I received a message from | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
Commonwealth youth New Zealand. I don't know whether I was alone in | :16:42. | :16:45. | |
that but it was addressed to me and I would just like to quote from the | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
message which said today in Wellington Dixie Young people from | :16:51. | :16:53. | |
around New Zealand will take part in the common leaders they programme | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
will stop this will bring together a range of inspiring young leaders and | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
community government, national and international fields and show Senior | :17:04. | :17:07. | |
high school students that everyday people can become outstanding | :17:08. | :17:11. | |
leaders. This is also an opportunity to promote understanding on global | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
issues, international operations and most importantly the values embodied | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
in the Commonwealth charter that we all seek to uphold. I would like to | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
think that 60 young people in every part of the Commonwealth were being | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
encouraged to come together with that purpose in mind, that we should | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
be talking about the values of the Commonwealth, continuing to put | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
across that message. It is certainly one of the fundamental roles of the | :17:40. | :17:41. | |
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association by the -- as the | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
honourable friend has said that we should be encouraging Parliamentary | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
strengthening. Just as this Parliament was in a place people | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
believed they could come to for the airing of grievances, we looked | :17:58. | :17:59. | |
around the world and the Commonwealth countries so many young | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
people, 60% of the Commonwealth population under the age of 30 have | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
grievances. The grievances which them often from dire poverty and so | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
on. How can they be expected to continue to believe in the | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
democratic system unless there is advancement, unless they have | :18:19. | :18:20. | |
confidence in the government that they elect and the work that is done | :18:21. | :18:26. | |
was not not just because this Parliament is a fountain of wisdom | :18:27. | :18:32. | |
but all Parliament and the Commonwealth coming together | :18:33. | :18:34. | |
learning from each other, finding ways in which we have common | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
interest and common practices which help to strengthen government. That | :18:40. | :18:43. | |
is what can help to give the confidence to young people in the | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
future that the Commonwealth itself has a meaning and that they have | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
hope within their own countries. I will give way to the honourable | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
gentleman. He mentioned New Zealand. Obviously, many of us in the home | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
countries here in Northern Ireland in particular have a very special | :19:05. | :19:06. | |
relationship with New Zealand. Our ancestors went from Ireland to New | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
Zealand and there is a special relationship with us here in the | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
United Kingdom and there. Is that a relationship he feels we should do | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
more with within the Commonwealth? I feel we should. Does he feel like | :19:19. | :19:26. | |
waves? -- likewise. None of the other country thought to send me a | :19:27. | :19:28. | |
message which is why I was quoting one from New Zealand which had sent | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
me a message. But of course, if we were more conscious day by day month | :19:33. | :19:38. | |
by month about our membership of the Commonwealth and our willingness to | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
start out the hand of friendship to encourage links between us, which | :19:44. | :19:46. | |
happens in all sorts of different ways outside the parliamentary | :19:47. | :19:49. | |
sphere there are around 90 organizations which are brought | :19:50. | :19:54. | |
together over all a range of matters because of the Commonwealth link. | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
But we need to be doing more at the political and elementary level. That | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
is the message that I would wish to put across and the key to that is to | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
involve more young people and we have at least gotten down to the | :20:09. | :20:10. | |
point where there is a Commonwealth youth Parliament -- Parliament | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
established on an annual basis but whether you call it and as Ann Li or | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
a council or a parliament, I would like to see young people being | :20:20. | :20:21. | |
persuaded to come together to do very much as those 60 young New | :20:22. | :20:27. | |
Zealanders were doing today. I just want to make one final point if I | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
may. I agree with so much that has been said in this debate, Madam | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
Deputy Speaker. But, we are at last way to achieve in the next few weeks | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
connectivity with one of our smallest branches in the | :20:43. | :20:45. | |
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and that is Svitolina. | :20:46. | :20:51. | |
As an airstrip which I and the member for Birmingham Northfield | :20:52. | :20:54. | |
recommended should be built after we visited the island in 1972, it is | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
very encouraging that after 46 years, so powerful was our oratory | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
that this at last is going to happen which will mean that we can bind | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
closer to us and welcome them on a much more active basis and hope that | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
they too will gain benefit and that we will gain benefit from | :21:17. | :21:19. | |
understanding their way of life on that remote island so I congratulate | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
once again my honourable friend, let us keep beating the jump for the | :21:25. | :21:27. | |
Commonwealth and realise that there is so much more to do and we look to | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
our colleagues as well as our staff to continue contributing any | :21:33. | :21:42. | |
magnificent way that they do. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I | :21:43. | :21:44. | |
congratulate my honourable friend the member for Bridgewater and West | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
Somerset both on securing this evening's debate and on this | :21:50. | :21:52. | |
relatively new world as Chairman of the UK branch of the Commonwealth | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
Parliamentary Association. Of course, following line in the | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
distinguished was that of my right honourable friend the member for | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
Saffron Walden from who we just heard. I also think other members | :22:05. | :22:09. | |
across the house for their contributions to this debate. I | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
would like to begin, Madam Deputy Speaker, by paying a warm tribute on | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
this Commonwealth day to her Majesty the Queen who has helped to shape | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
the Commonwealth, not for 30-40 or 55 years in this auction but | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
actually from a 65 years. As head of the Commonwealth, her Majesty has | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
given tireless support, playing a leading role in creating a family of | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
nations that spans every continent, all major religions and almost a | :22:40. | :22:42. | |
third of the world's population. It was particularly gratifying and | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
appropriate to it this afternoon in the service at was -- Westminster | :22:48. | :22:53. | |
Abbey, her Majesty in her 90 year as usual so loyally supported by his | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
Royal highness the Duke of Edinburgh but also by their Royal highness is | :22:58. | :23:00. | |
the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, his Royal highness Rick Perry and | :23:01. | :23:06. | |
his Royal highness the Duke of York -- Prince Harry. Like the honourable | :23:07. | :23:13. | |
member for Walters died I would also like to pay should be to the use of | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
the Parliamentary Association, the work of Andrew for all we know they | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
even be following this debate and his colleagues who have done so much | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
to promote and strengthen the institution of Parliament and the | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
commitment to the rule of law. I will say more about them later. I | :23:31. | :23:35. | |
would also like to join in the thanks to and to the work of the | :23:36. | :23:44. | |
Secretary-General as he steps down after eight years. I joined the | :23:45. | :23:47. | |
diamonds are, my right honourable friend at number ten last week to | :23:48. | :23:50. | |
thank them personally for his efforts. He has helped to hide the | :23:51. | :23:55. | |
Commonwealth or a period of significant challenges and can be | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
rightly proud of the important developments that have taken place | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
under his leadership. Such as the introduction of the Commonwealth | :24:04. | :24:10. | |
charter. Madam Deputy Speaker, in Malta last November we welcomed the | :24:11. | :24:13. | |
appointment of his successor, the noble and learned Lady the Baron of | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
Holland. We wish her every success as she takes at this position -- | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
Baroness of Scotland. We believe she will ensure that the Commonwealth | :24:23. | :24:25. | |
has a stronger voice, makes a greater impact and that its members | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
show greater unity and purpose in upholding the Commonwealth's value. | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
It is an answer to the point made by the honourable member for the City | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
of Durham, it is right and appropriate and good news says the | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
father of two daughters that the Commonwealth is headed by a woman, | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
the Secretariat is to be headed by a woman, the international Chairman of | :24:51. | :24:54. | |
the CPA is of course a woman. So it's a pretty good start. This | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
government recognises the great potential of the Commonwealth, in | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
2010 the then foreign secretary my right honourable friend the noble or | :25:06. | :25:09. | |
Lord Hake of Richmond said he wanted to but PC back into the foreign and | :25:10. | :25:13. | |
him and what office. Ideally we had done that and that this government | :25:14. | :25:17. | |
remains determined to ensure that the Commonwealth is reenergized and | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
supports all its members and delivering greater prosperity and | :25:23. | :25:25. | |
security to their citizens. For this reason, in May of last year we made | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
a manifesto commitment to strengthen the Commonwealth's focused on | :25:31. | :25:34. | |
promoting democratic values and development. And in November, the | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
prime Minister led a strong UK delegation to kill them in Malta. -- | :25:40. | :25:47. | |
to a place in Malta. Our mission is clear. We aim to counter extremism | :25:48. | :25:56. | |
and radicalisation and to help small island developing states develop | :25:57. | :26:00. | |
their economies and boost resilience to climate change. These initiatives | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
will strengthen the contribution of the Commonwealth and its member | :26:05. | :26:07. | |
states in tackling global challenges. Our positioning itself | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
squarely in the international arena, the Commonwealth yet again | :26:13. | :26:14. | |
demonstrates its relevance in helping to address these important | :26:15. | :26:17. | |
issues that confront us all. Some important issues in terms of | :26:18. | :26:30. | |
climate change and in terms of addressing world terrorism. I | :26:31. | :26:33. | |
recently visited, I understand, Maldives, where he raised those | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
issues about the president. And when this country made different | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
interpretations and difficulties. Those positive things are exactly | :26:43. | :26:44. | |
what the honourable member indicated. The talk about those | :26:45. | :26:49. | |
issues helps us understand each other better. Order, order! I'd like | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
to move that this House do now adjourn. The question is that this | :26:55. | :27:00. | |
House do now adjourn. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The honourable | :27:01. | :27:03. | |
gentleman's point about the Maldives, of course the | :27:04. | :27:05. | |
Secretary-General is sending his own representatives there. We want the | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
Maldives Tuesday a committed member of the Commonwealth, but to adhere | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
to Commonwealth values -- we want the Maldives Tuesday. That means | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
just fancy, con ability, democracy, all we accept as being the norm. -- | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
transparency, accountability. We want the Maldives to be served by a | :27:24. | :27:26. | |
government that actually adheres to those principles. I welcome that the | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
work of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the ministerial action group is | :27:32. | :27:38. | |
doing with regard to that country. Madam Deputy Speaker, we will | :27:39. | :27:42. | |
continue to take these initiatives forward come up through will be | :27:43. | :27:49. | |
hosted here in the United Kingdom in the spring of 2018. We will work | :27:50. | :27:54. | |
with our Commonwealth partners, wider Commonwealth organizations and | :27:55. | :27:56. | |
with the Commonwealth Secretariat under Patricia Scotland's | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
leadership. Hosting the next meeting presents us with the opportunity to | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
build on the progress made in Malta, to make the Commonwealth more | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
relevant and more effective into increased its stock and standing in | :28:10. | :28:16. | |
the world. The shared values of tolerance, respect, and | :28:17. | :28:18. | |
understanding are central to these year's theme and inclusive | :28:19. | :28:24. | |
Commonwealth. As we look to strengthen the partnership of | :28:25. | :28:27. | |
nations, people in societies right across the Commonwealth. Earlier | :28:28. | :28:30. | |
today at the prisoner of experiencing some of the diverse | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
city and energy of the Commonwealth in the performances of the | :28:35. | :28:37. | |
multi-faith service at Westminster Abbey. This annual event is an | :28:38. | :28:40. | |
opportunity to celebrate all that is good about the Commonwealth as | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
indeed Madam Deputy Speaker, is this debate. The presence of her Majesty | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
and a significant number of dignitaries from across the | :28:50. | :28:52. | |
Commonwealth, including the Prime Minister of Malta, the office and | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
Kofi Annan, who spoke so eloquently, so clearly the warmth in her regard | :28:57. | :29:02. | |
for which the organisation is held. The diversity of those who spoke at | :29:03. | :29:05. | |
the event reflects the Commonwealth's dynamic appellation | :29:06. | :29:10. | |
of more than 2 billion people. -- population. The UK branch of the | :29:11. | :29:16. | |
coming wealth Parliamentary Association, my honourable friend on | :29:17. | :29:21. | |
the Member for Bridgewater in West Somerset, plays a significant role | :29:22. | :29:25. | |
as did his predecessor in supporting work to foster cooperation and | :29:26. | :29:28. | |
understanding between parliaments and promote good governance and | :29:29. | :29:31. | |
advanced elementary democracy. We welcome the work of this association | :29:32. | :29:38. | |
and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Secretariat, based here | :29:39. | :29:40. | |
in London. Established in 1911, it has made this the Afghan | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
contributions and helping Commonwealth members to uphold | :29:45. | :29:47. | |
democratic values -- significant competition. Also an opportunity | :29:48. | :29:55. | |
does discuss issues of mutual interest. Return from a country I | :29:56. | :30:02. | |
visited recently is another example of strong leadership across the | :30:03. | :30:05. | |
Association. I enjoyed meeting dimmers of the Commonwealth policy | :30:06. | :30:10. | |
done at Parliament Association during my recent visit to Ottawa. My | :30:11. | :30:18. | |
honourable friend, Commonwealth Parliament Association's conference | :30:19. | :30:21. | |
on sustainability, energy and developing. Events like this are | :30:22. | :30:24. | |
vital if we are to take forward the Commonwealth heads of the room and | :30:25. | :30:27. | |
meet the mandate of implementing the UN sustainable development goals. We | :30:28. | :30:35. | |
welcome the recent deployment of Mr Deaux Secretary-General of the | :30:36. | :30:37. | |
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. He has an important | :30:38. | :30:43. | |
role to play in taking forward the organisation's agenda. I welcome his | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
vision of a strong Parliamentary arm, working in and across the | :30:49. | :30:50. | |
Commonwealth family by delivering programmes to Commonwealth | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
parliamentarians that underpins the respect for Commonwealth political | :30:56. | :30:57. | |
values, the Association aims to strengthen democratic governance of | :30:58. | :31:04. | |
our legislatures and parliaments. The honourable gentleman, member for | :31:05. | :31:07. | |
Glasgow North, talked about the success of the Commonwealth games in | :31:08. | :31:11. | |
Glasgow. I was privileged to have been there myself and I saw David | :31:12. | :31:15. | |
Gergen Merck, the CEO of the Commonwealth games Federation, | :31:16. | :31:21. | |
today. He was recounting how I think in Glasgow they have just under | :31:22. | :31:25. | |
survey -- they've just done a survey as to the success of the games and | :31:26. | :31:28. | |
whether people felt it was worthwhile, and I think almost | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
universal feedback was that they would like to host, if they could do | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
it all over again they would. It was good news for Glasgow, and of course | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
that's moving to Australia next and I'm sure it will be a success. The | :31:44. | :31:47. | |
talk about having music as well as board, obviously, a good point. At | :31:48. | :31:52. | |
the gains in Glasgow, of course, the Commonwealth youth orchestra and | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
choir must be Commonwealth music competitions, that is something we | :31:58. | :32:01. | |
look forward to in forward them at further course. Trade is of course | :32:02. | :32:04. | |
an area where the Commonwealth must have greater ambitions. It must be | :32:05. | :32:07. | |
one of the top priorities for the 2018 heads of government meeting. | :32:08. | :32:13. | |
Between now and then, we will be developing a broad range of policies | :32:14. | :32:17. | |
relating to the Commonwealth and trade, we are working extremely | :32:18. | :32:21. | |
closely with the Commonwealth enterprise and investment Council, | :32:22. | :32:24. | |
which is doing a magnificent job and had a very good trade | :32:25. | :32:29. | |
which 2000 delegates came to that, plus. We will build on that and work | :32:30. | :32:34. | |
to bring trade visas from across the Commonwealth together more regularly | :32:35. | :32:37. | |
to increase trade between Member States. My honourable friend raised | :32:38. | :32:44. | |
the idea of a possible project to inform parliamentarians across the | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
Commonwealth on legislation am including such things as modern | :32:50. | :32:52. | |
slavery act and that is something you are also looking at. Honourable | :32:53. | :32:56. | |
gentleman is also talked about rights and the Commonwealth charter. | :32:57. | :33:03. | |
It is worth saying that, despite being set out clearly, in the | :33:04. | :33:05. | |
Commonwealth charter, something of which the outgoing secretary general | :33:06. | :33:12. | |
can be justifiably proud, as I said. Respect for rights and values is not | :33:13. | :33:15. | |
consistent across the Commonwealth. We have to accept that. The issue of | :33:16. | :33:22. | |
LGBT right is a particular challenge. The Prime Minister was | :33:23. | :33:25. | |
clear about the need for the Commonwealth to seek to narrow its | :33:26. | :33:31. | |
divisions on the LGBT issues. In that statement, Commonwealth leaders | :33:32. | :33:33. | |
agreed on economic potential. There can be unlocked for tackling | :33:34. | :33:38. | |
discrimination and exclusion. These are difficult issues for some, what | :33:39. | :33:43. | |
countries, I do accept, but those same countries did sign the | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
Commonwealth charter. Speaking at the human rights Council in Geneva | :33:49. | :33:51. | |
last week, the outgoing Secretary-General acknowledged that | :33:52. | :33:55. | |
the Commonwealth cannot be truly inclusive if the criminalize Asian | :33:56. | :34:01. | |
of homosexuality is not addressed -- can migration. Decimates one of our | :34:02. | :34:05. | |
biggest human rights challenges. We will continue to work with Member | :34:06. | :34:09. | |
States to and termination of all kinds, to promote tolerance and to | :34:10. | :34:13. | |
build inclusive governance and opportunity for all. These are all | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
central to creating a truly inclusive Commonwealth and critical | :34:18. | :34:22. | |
to developing stronger, more secure and prosperous societies. Because, | :34:23. | :34:24. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker, it is huge potential in the Commonwealth. | :34:25. | :34:30. | |
Recent report is highlighted, current trends, the value of venture | :34:31. | :34:33. | |
Commonwealth trade will reach $1 trillion by 2020. As a minister | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
responsible for our relationship with the Commonwealth since 2012, I | :34:39. | :34:44. | |
visited a good number of Commonwealth countries. From Canada | :34:45. | :34:48. | |
to Australia, India to Papua New Guinea, should live to be Solomon | :34:49. | :34:51. | |
Islands, it is clear that they remain a genuine desire across the | :34:52. | :34:56. | |
53 Member States, to see the Commonwealth progress on the | :34:57. | :34:59. | |
important areas affecting them and the wider world today. The | :35:00. | :35:03. | |
challenges have never been greater. But the rewards could be greater, | :35:04. | :35:09. | |
still. It will be up to all of us, within the Commonwealth family, to | :35:10. | :35:11. | |
ensure action is taken on the most pressing global issues. So I think | :35:12. | :35:16. | |
my honourable friend, and the Member for Rich Lerner in West Somerset and | :35:17. | :35:21. | |
other right, role and honourable member for the opportunity to debate | :35:22. | :35:24. | |
this important issue today -- Bridgwater. As we go into the end, | :35:25. | :35:29. | |
towards the end of the Commonwealth date, there are more Commonwealth | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
celebrations tomorrow, it doesn't end there, the foreign Commonwealth | :35:34. | :35:36. | |
office is beefing up the Commonwealth team to make sure that | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
will be hosted here in the UK, in the spring of 2018, it will be a | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
memorable event. I look forward to any suggestions incidentally from | :35:46. | :35:49. | |
those interested in the Commonwealth. That they may have as | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
to how we can make the agenda relevant, how we can make the whole | :35:55. | :36:00. | |
Commonwealth conference exciting, and the honourable gentleman is now | :36:01. | :36:03. | |
going to already start off with a suggestion. We were talking about | :36:04. | :36:13. | |
the CPA as a member. But I also say that in terms of looking forward, | :36:14. | :36:18. | |
could he ensure that the default assume these are absolutely involved | :36:19. | :36:23. | |
in all of this and are used to help spread the message of the | :36:24. | :36:26. | |
Commonwealth. One of the most unifying things that was done was | :36:27. | :36:32. | |
when the assembly was established in 1990 eight -- 1998, was it set up a | :36:33. | :36:36. | |
common love room in the SMB. I know he chuckled earlier when I made the | :36:37. | :36:40. | |
point, but the fact that innocently that I think is good. Let me make it | :36:41. | :36:47. | |
clear, it's not up to me or the Bridges government who becomes a | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
member of the Commonwealth. That's a perfectly straightforward | :36:52. | :36:52. | |
application process, any country has to fulfil certain criteria. But it | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
is up to the secretary at and other members as to who comes in, not just | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
the United Kingdom. That's as it should be. There are, incidentally, | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
a significant amount of countries who have parts to join the | :37:08. | :37:11. | |
Commonwealth. Talking of clubs, the honourable Lady says she would not | :37:12. | :37:15. | |
want to join a club of which she was a member. Putting Mr Marks, the | :37:16. | :37:18. | |
other Mr Marx. But the truth of the matter is you can judge a club by | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
those who do want to become, and there are those that do want to join | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
the Commonwealth in itself. As validation of it as a relevant | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
institution. In terms of the devolved administrations, having a | :37:34. | :37:35. | |
greater sight of what we are going to discuss, at the Commonwealth | :37:36. | :37:39. | |
heads of Government meeting. Of course the United Kingdom is the | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
member of the Commonwealth, but I have some sympathy with what he | :37:45. | :37:48. | |
said. We don't want the schoolchildren of West Belfast | :37:49. | :37:52. | |
thinking that Barack Obama is in charge of the Commonwealth. LAUGHTER | :37:53. | :38:01. | |
The question is that this house do now adjourn. As many of that opinion | :38:02. | :38:06. | |
say ayes. The ayes have it, the ayes have it. Order, order! | :38:07. | :38:37. | |
Surely the real answer, rather than just having these sort of false | :38:38. | :38:45. | |
states where people certainly get renewed, is to build more housing so | :38:46. | :38:48. | |
that the very people at the moment of those on the waiting list can | :38:49. | :38:51. | |
come off the waiting list into social housing. It's actually both. | :38:52. | :38:57. | |
It's to build more housing and it also to check it and review | :38:58. | :39:04. | |
intervals, whether the housing that is being provided for say a family, | :39:05. | :39:10. | |
continues to be that need or perhaps they need something | :39:11. | :39:11. |