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Energy Bill

My Lords, I found the contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, excellent. It is almost a textbook explanation of future challenges in this area; certainly one that I will refer to on many occasions. The key things are the two principles. First, Ofgem’s operation must reflect both the climate change and energy security agendas as well as its current prime tasks. That is more easily said than done, but adjustment is important. As to how that is achieved, I listened carefully to the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, on whether this would be better done in his more explicit and detailed way. I am rather persuaded by him, although the elegance of the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, is excellent. It puts the whole issue in exactly the right context, in that our decisions in this area today must last into future generations. Nowhere in energy security and climate change is this more the case. I hope that the Minister will indicate a way to ensure that Ofgem’s responsibilities and how it operates are modified, and how that modification might be brought about without the curse of unfocused responsibilities, which can be equally difficult.