---

Energy Bill

moved Amendment No. 75: 75: After Clause 89, insert the following new Clause— ““Power to amend licence conditions etc: carbon dioxide emission targets and fuel poverty (1) The Secretary of State may modify— (a) a condition of a particular electricity supply licence under section 6(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 1989 (c. 29); (b) the standard conditions incorporated in licences under those provisions by virtue of section 8A of that Act; (c) a condition of a particular gas supply licence under section 7A of the Gas Act 1986 (c. 44); (d) the standard conditions incorporated in licences under those provisions by virtue of section 8 of that Act; (e) a document maintained in accordance with the conditions of licences under section 6(1) of the Electricity Act 1989 or section 7 or 7A of the Gas Act 1986, or an agreement that gives effect to a document so maintained. (2) The Secretary of State may exercise the power in subsection (1) for the purpose of requiring the holder of a licence to promote measures, in respect of the group of customers defined in subsection (4), pursuant to any order made under Part 1 of the Gas Act or Part 1 of the Electricity Act 1989 that imposes an obligation on suppliers to achieve carbon dioxide emission reduction targets. (3) Modifications made by virtue of subsection (1) may include— (a) provision about the protection of consumers; (b) provision requiring the holder of the licence to enter (or refrain from entering) into an agreement of a specified kind, or with a specified person; (c) provision specifying, or enabling the determination of, a date from which a modification is to take effect. (4) In subsection (2) ““the group of customers”” means customers who are— (a) in receipt of income or disability benefits, (b) in receipt of tax or pension credits, or (c) aged 70 or over. (5) The Secretary of State shall, within 6 months of this Act receiving Royal Assent, lay before Parliament regulations making provision for the provision of information to licence holders enabling them to identify those of their customers who fall within the group defined in subsection (4), and provision about the use, sharing and protection of that information. (6) Regulations under subsection (5) shall make provision in relation to matters including, but not limited to— (a) disclosure to licence holders of specified information, (b) conditions relating to the security of information disclosed, (c) conditions relating to the use and sharing of such information. (7) Regulations under subsection (5) shall be made by statutory instrument and shall be subject to affirmative resolution of each House of Parliament.”” The noble Lord said: Those who were in the Chamber on 22 January will recollect that, when the House was asked to pass an order entitled the Electricity and Gas (Carbon Emissions Reduction) Order 2008—the CERT order as it is usually called—I moved a regret Motion. That followed a very unsatisfactory debate in Grand Committee when I complained that, while the order imposed strict duties on the suppliers to secure 40 per cent of their carbon emission reductions from the so-called ““priority group”” of customers, who broadly might be described as the fuel poor—and these were duties subject to substantial penalties in case of failure to comply—the department flatly refused to tell the companies which households fell into the priority group. So the companies were driven into, what I called on that occasion, a very costly ““hunt the thimble””. The noble Lord, Lord Rooker, the Defra Minister responsible for the order, had, I suspect, a somewhat uncomfortable time trying to defend the indefensible. Angrily, noble Lords may remember, he challenged me to divide the House against the order. I refused for two reasons. First, the order is aimed at improving the energy efficiency of the existing domestic sector. I regard that as a very important aim. Secondly, I said that I would return to the matter when we had the Energy Bill before us. We all know that the gas and electricity industry does its best to help the Government to achieve their objectives in the field of energy policy, and particularly for the domestic customer. It does that in a number of ways. One is the excellent voluntary agreement which was recently negotiated to increase the industry’s expenditure on fuel poverty mitigation measures to some £150 million a year by the year 2010. Another is the CERT order, by promoting energy efficiency and energy conservation measures. But what these require is an effective means of targeting the help on those who most need it. I ask noble Lords to hang on to ““targeting””. However, since January, there have been some significant developments. In April, Ofgem mounted a fuel poverty summit, an objective of which was to concentrate on targeting the fuel poor. By then—whether as a result of the discomfiture in January of the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, or not—Ministers had decided that they had to do something about it. The outcome of the summit was therefore the so-called fuel poverty action programme, a copy of which was sent to me by the noble Lord, Lord Mogg, on 4 June. In his covering letter, the noble Lord set out the programme’s main points. I quote the first two: "““The Government has announced that it will seek to legislate to allow the Department for Work and Pensions and energy suppliers to share data so that help can be targeted at vulnerable customers … Energy suppliers have committed to improving the targeting of their social measures for fuel-poor customers””." There were a number of other points, but they are not relevant to the amendment. The amendment is intended to provide an appropriate statutory backing for an information disclosure scheme that would enable the Government and the industry to achieve these objectives. It is drafted in a way that I would have tried to avoid if I had had any choice. It begins, for example, with the grant of a power to the Minister to modify the conditions of the industry’s operating licences. It is clear to me and some others that that would not be the ideal way of dealing with it, but I had to do something like that to bring the clause within the Long Title; I express my gratitude to the Public Bill Office for its help in this regard. The key provision of the new clause is quite clear. It would require Ministers, within six months of the Bill receiving Royal Assent, to bring forward regulations to establish a scheme for the disclosure to gas and electricity suppliers of information that would enable them to identify those of their domestic customers who are in receipt of the benefits, credits or allowances listed in Schedule 2 to the CERT order; I declare an interest as, being over 70, I am included in that schedule—no doubt with a number of other noble Lords. Disclosure of that information would enable the suppliers to target—I latch on to that word again—not only the priority treatment groups under the CERT order, but also those most likely to be able to benefit under the suppliers of a voluntary fuel poverty mitigation programme. As noble Lords will realise, there is a high degree of overlap between those customer groups. Of course, there must be safeguards over the use, sharing and protection of information disclosed under the scheme. Part of my amendment is directed to that. The tight timeframe of six months for preparing and laying the regulations demonstrates an intention underlying the urgency of dealing with this. If any of these policies are to take effect, it must be done quickly. The regulations will need to be fairly far-reaching. They include at least four government departments: the Minister’s own department, BERR; Defra; the Department for Work and Pensions; and Revenue and Customs, if one is talking about tax credits—as we know from another incident, it ought to hold all the details. The regulations may have to modify some elements of current data protection legislation, or of carving out certain exemptions from such legislation. Therefore, because it is important, the clause provides for the regulations to be subject to an affirmative resolution procedure. Of course, that would provide for appropriate parliamentary scrutiny. A moment ago, I mentioned the Department for Work and Pensions, and I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie of Luton, who gave me advance notice of the amendment that he tabled at the end of last week, which would provide for relevant information disclosures to gas and electricity suppliers in relation to customers who are in receipt of state pension credit. My immediate reaction was to say that, welcome though that might be, it affects only the smallest group of all those who are intended to qualify as members of the priority group under the CERT order and hence, by extension, only to a very small group of those who are vulnerable to fuel poverty. However, the new clause in the Pensions Bill, of which for better information I have acquired a copy, states very clearly: "““The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision authorising the Secretary of State, or a person providing services to the Secretary of State, to supply relevant persons with social security information about persons in receipt of state pension credit””." ““Relevant persons”” are described later in the clause, but that broadly means the electricity and gas industries. There you have a very clear precedent of what can be done for that group. I want to see it being done for the whole priority group. Otherwise, what is the purpose of listing them all in the CERT order and then not telling the industries who they are? That is the purpose of my amendment. Something along the lines of the Pensions Bill amendment would provide for the effective targeting—I come back to that word—that was required under the action programme following the fuel poverty summit. It seems to me to be absolutely in line with what the Government want to do and as subscribers to the action programme with what they have said they will do. I hope that Ministers may be able to smile on this amendment. I beg to move.