Environment and Rural Development Committee, 28 Jan 2004

Meeting date: Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Official Report 270KB pdf

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Energy Bill (UK Legislation)

At our previous meeting, we appointed Rob Gibson to act as reporter at the Enterprise and Culture Committee's consideration of the Sewel motion on the United Kingdom Energy Bill. Members have the Scottish Executive memorandum and a briefing from the Scottish Parliament information centre. I ask Rob Gibson to report back to us.

Members should be aware that ministers Allan Wilson and Lewis Macdonald appeared before the Enterprise and Culture Committee. The Energy Bill is really three bills in one and is therefore highly complicated. The memorandum that the Scottish Executive prepared related only to devolved issues, so there was no room to discuss in any detail, for example, the arrangements for the British electricity trading and transmission arrangements to be shared—or not shared—across the UK.

The Enterprise and Culture Committee questioned the ministers for an hour and considered that that was not enough time, given the size of the bill and its implications for Scotland. I believe that that committee intends to write to the ministers about that and about the procedures for dealing in Parliament with matters of such complexity.

The committee supplied me with four questions to put to ministers. Sarah Boyack asked whether there had been an examination of the impact on Scottish consumers and Scottish electricity generators of the costs of expanding the grid. I can give members the notes from the meeting and they will see the Official Report in due course, but ministers said basically that the Scottish Executive is involved in the Department of Trade and Industry's transmissions issues working group, where it is voicing the interests of Scottish producers and consumers, so there was something positive in the answer to Sarah Boyack's question.

I asked other questions, which related to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency's powers and to site licensee companies. The Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development responded that the bill would lead to improvement on the current arrangements and that SEPA was being included in discussions about site licensee companies so that it could effect a smooth transfer if a site licensee company went into liquidation.

The Environment and Rural Development Committee's final question was dealt with implicitly by the ministers when they talked about what would happen in relation to safety areas around offshore developments. In the Robin Rigg Offshore Wind Farm (Navigation and Fishing) (Scotland) Bill, a large element was not included because it was stated that the Westminster Government would introduce a maritime or marine bill that would deal with maritime passage and safety. Those matters have, however, ended up in the Energy Bill, a large component of which deals with arrangements for the designation of offshore renewable energy zones.

My remarks have been brief because we are short of time, but I emphasise that the bill raises many complex issues that we need more time to discuss. I endorse the Enterprise and Culture Committee's view that it did not have nearly enough time to question ministers. Indeed, my contribution to the hour during which ministers were questioned lasted only about three and a half minutes. I am sorry that we did not have more time, but I have passed on to the committee what was said.

Thank you. It is important that we have your feedback from the meeting. Although our timetable does not give us much opportunity to do more, it is useful to know that we had input to the Enterprise and Culture Committee's discussions. Members have no questions for Rob Gibson, so I thank him for doing that work for us and for his feedback.