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Energy Bill

It may be some time since the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan, was in opposition, but he deludes himself if he imagines that an opposition party, with whatever advice it may get from experts, could conceivably commit itself to the details of a programme of this sort. What it can commit itself to is to saying that the most speedy advance of smart meters is something that should have a high policy priority. In government, it would rely on the advice that would be available from the department and the officials it would inherit to decide the best way. A great deal of work has been done. I thought that the consultation paper published in August last year was extremely good. It was immensely thorough and went into a great many of the issues. It is not surprising that as a result, the Government are taking a bit of time to decide what to do. There have been a number of things since then. The Minister, Malcolm Wicks, said: "““I should say that our intention is to report our work on these analyses to the House by the end of the year””.—[Official Report, Commons, 30/4/08; col. 335.]" If that is the Government’s intention, what is wrong with having 12 months from the passing of the Bill? If anything, that is a rather less stringent obligation. The noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, knows that. On talking to the experts, I was intrigued to find that the latest models can do both gas and electricity in the same meter. My immediate reaction was to ask, ““What happens if there is a spark in one?””. ““They can look after that””, they said. For those of us who have both gas and electricity, such a meter would obviously be an advantage.