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Energy Bill

moved Amendment No. 57: 57: Before Clause 80, insert the following new Clause— ““Information on contributions towards environmental taxes (1) The Secretary of State shall make regulations requiring energy utilities companies to detail the proportion of consumers’ energy bills contributing towards environmental taxes. (2) In this section, ““environmental taxes”” means the Renewables Obligations Certificates, charges resulting from the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and charges resulting from the Carbon Emissions Reduction Targets and future additional environmental charges.”” The noble Baroness said: The amendment is about information on the contribution to environmental taxes on invoices. It specifies that the invoices received from energy companies must outline for the consumer the amount spent on environmental taxes and emission-reduction schemes. The Minister in another place indicated that it might be difficult to pinpoint the precise contributions for individuals, as consumers’ tariffs might vary considerably. That does not seem to be the industry view, however. When Ofgem gave evidence to the Committee in another place, Alistair Buchanan said: "““Some £80 of roughly £1,000 dual fuel average household bill is now a combination of ROC, which is about £10, your energy efficiency, which is about £35 … and your European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme … which is around £30””.—[Official Report, Commons, Energy Bill Committee, 5/2/08; col. 47.]" The regulator seems to know the amount of contributions and believes it to be available in a way that is straightforward to determine, so does the Minister not think that consumers should have access to that information? If consumers are to be empowered to make decisions on their energy use, surely they should be given all the information concerning how much of their money is going to pay environmental taxes and how much will go on the fuel that they use. If we expect people to monitor their energy consumption, it makes sense that they should also be allowed to monitor their contributions to schemes designed to reduce consumption. Our efforts to increase energy efficiency should be married to the idea of the empowered consumer. The best way to give people that sort of power is to keep them as informed as possible. The Minister in another place said that he would investigate whether legislative structures were already in place to deal with the matter. Can the noble Lord tell the Committee the conclusions of that investigation? Was it a concession on the principle of the matter, or does he feel it right to keep consumers in the dark over their energy bills? I beg to move.