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Energy Bill

I am grateful to all noble Lords who spoke to the amendment and to my noble friend for introducing it. I reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Carnegy, that the Government are interested in the amendment. We take all amendments seriously. Certainly my noble friend, as he has said, does not think that he is stretching the envelope too far for Government and thinks that there may be a basis for compromise. There may be, but let me reiterate the fact that we are concerned about fixing the details in primary legislation now. We regard that as somewhat premature; in the final analysis, it might bind us in such a way as to have negative implications for the very objectives that we share. We are looking at ways to get the rollout for domestic consumers. The Bill provides the necessary flexibility while also ensuring that Parliament scrutinises the licence conditions that are eventually established. I reassure my noble friend in that respect that there is full parliamentary scrutiny of what the Government will do in this area, and I assure him that we will of course set out a timetable. If we decide by the end of this year—and that is the decision framework to which we are committing ourselves—that we wish to proceed with the smart meter rollout to domestic consumers, we understand entirely that we will not be able to do that without a timetable. That is necessary for the wider public and for the industry, which has to gear itself up for the necessary structures and investment decisions to make it possible. I am giving him the commitment that that is our intention. He will recognise that his amendment falls into the same category. It is much closer to the Government’s thinking than one or two earlier amendments which sought to put in the Bill, and therefore in primary legislation, a commitment on a matter on which the Government need to preserve some flexibility. We do not doubt that the benefits of smart metering are potentially significant.