Malcolm Wicks
Main Page: Malcolm Wicks (Labour - Croydon North)
Chris Huhne
I assure the hon. Gentleman that the Government are extremely seized of the urgency of getting the legislation through during the second Session and of issuing the contracts, so that they will be on course and we are able—I hope—to issue the first contracts in 2013.
Malcolm Wicks (Croydon North) (Lab)
I will put to one side a Liberal Democrat Secretary of State attacking the Labour Government for being slow to build nuclear reactors, which shows a capacity for humour that I admire. Do the Secretary of State and the Department now have contractual details from our gas supply companies, which used not to be the case? That would, first, enable him to assure himself about the security of supply, not least given that we often buy gas on the spot market or in the short term, and secondly, enable his Department to scrutinise those contracts to make sure that when companies increase gas prices they are doing so in ways that are fair to the customer.
Chris Huhne
The right hon. Gentleman makes a very good point; he is expert in this area. The Energy Bill, which we hope will achieve Royal Assent in the autumn when we come back from the recess, contains provisions that ensure that we are able to be informed about these measures and ensure greater security of supply. He will have read in the press about long-term arrangements being contracted, for example, between Centrica and the state of Qatar. We have a number of these longer-term arrangements. Security of supply is important in physical terms, and we also think about it in price terms. The 30% increase in gas prices over the past year has been a significant shock to a number of consumers. One of the reasons we want to get to low carbon is to protect the economy and consumers against that sort of shock.