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Energy Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord for this amendment, which gives us a chance to air an important topic. I must declare a direct interest. This year, my grandson suffered from leukaemia and to see an eight year-old go through the agonies of the necessary treatment fixes the issue very firmly indeed in one’s mind. I was very grateful for the way in which the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, approached the whole issue and for how constructive he has been. I regret that I do not have a great deal to add to his extremely comprehensive analysis because he was so fair in identifying the nature of the problem and in indicating the difficulties of the potential solutions. He is right about the fundamental position that we do not know enough about leukaemia to identify its causes and, as regards power lines, he also showed statistically how limited any effect is but, however small the number of cases, every child affected is a grievous concern to us all. As he said, we have to have proportionality in developing a strategy for the grid that relates to what still would be just a potential factor with regard to the illness and to children. That shows how problematic the whole issue is. Certainly, the industry and the Government have taken the Draper report very seriously, as they have any issue of public health. What constructively can we do to advance understanding of the issue and what action needs to be taken? I was extremely grateful to the noble Lord for the way in which he spoke about the work of SAGE, the Stakeholder Advisory Group on ELF EMFs. It certainly brought everyone together on a remit to identify and explore the implications of the issues. It reported last year and made a number of recommendations in relation to power lines and property, and, as the noble Lord also added, to wiring in homes and electrical equipment. SAGE set out a range of precautionary options to reduce exposures significantly, involving the physical separation of buildings from power lines. It identified the best-available option for obtaining significant exposure reduction; namely, a combination of no new power lines and no new developments too close to residential developments and schools. It also undertook a cost-benefit analysis of this precautionary option and found that, because of the difficulty of cause and effect and the small numbers involved, it was difficult to reach a positive cost-benefit analysis on any action, which is what the noble Lord very fairly reflected in his speech. We are currently considering the report very seriously. The noble Lord mentioned that my noble friend Lady Andrews has already commented on it. The work is ongoing and we are considering the Health Protection Agency’s advice. It will also take into account the cross-party inquiry into childhood leukaemia and the advice of the World Health Organisation which was published last year. The noble Lord asked me whether the amendment would at least trigger from the Government a more specific date than he has received so far. I cannot say anything more than that the work is being done intensively and is under careful scrutiny. I somewhat doubt whether we will have the Government’s response to the report before we have completed our deliberations on the Bill. We are committed to doing it this year, but there is a lot of work. I cannot give him the assurance that he sought that we would have it ready for Report in the autumn, as far as this measure is concerned. The noble Lord will understand our reluctance to pre-empt by any amendment at this stage the consideration of the report. I am grateful to him for having raised an issue of the greatest concern to the industry and to the Government. There is not the slightest doubt of the obligation on the Government to examine the issue thoroughly, which they are doing, and to respond to the report, which raises very profound and difficult issues. I hope that I have at least conveyed that seriousness on the part of the Government, if I cannot help the noble Lord regarding the timetable.