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Energy Bill

I am grateful to noble Lords. I usually express gratitude at this point for the contribution of my noble friend Lord O’Neill, who is often extremely helpful. Let me just say that I was rather shocked by his suggestion that we would need our grandchildren to show us how to use our video recorders. I find that quite challenging; I am still teaching my grandchildren how to do it, so there is a reverse of that situation. But, as the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, indicated, calculating the bills is a different matter altogether. We should address ourselves to that point. There is no question of the consumer’s rights being fulfilled if they cannot follow the position of caveat emptor because what is in front of them is incomprehensible. I am grateful to the noble Lord for eschewing the opportunity to discuss the wider issues of smart meterage again. I shall therefore concentrate on his amendment. Of course, we are in favour of supporting consumers to use the energy market to their advantage and switch to the best energy tariffs but, as the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, said, that requires that they can identify those opportunities without excessive amounts of hard calculation. Of course, as we know, many consumers are already doing this; you have only to switch between energy companies at present to see that that occurs. There is no doubt that a smart meter can play a role in adding to the information and the readiness of the information for the consumer, which is a good thing. I am in favour of the principle, but I am against the technical function of the meter itself being placed in primary legislation. That seems a circumscription too far. As I indicated earlier, I seek to preserve some flexibility with regard to that, which is why I shall ask the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment. However, I reassure the Committee that in the event of a rollout of smart meters to domestic customers the intention would certainly be for each household to receive a visual display device. The display will provide the customer with the information about their energy use, enabling them to manage their energy consumption better. Customers will be able to use the information on the display to help to identify the appropriate tariff; it will indicate, too, what the noble Lord often emphasises—the amount of energy consumption. We are committed to the principle. What I am really not prepared to accept is this degree of technical detail in the Bill. I hope that the noble Lord will accept that response.