John Bercow
Main Page: John Bercow (Speaker - Buckingham)(11 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab)
(Urgent Question): Yesterday, the Prime Minister threw energy policy into confusion, causing chaos—
Mr Speaker
Order. At this stage, all that the right hon. Lady needs to do is to ask the Secretary of State to make a statement on the matter.
Caroline Flint
I ask the Secretary of State to make a statement on the matter.
Mr Speaker
Order. A sizeable number of hon. and right hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye, and I am keen to accommodate that interest. I remind the House, however, that business questions are to follow and that thereafter there are to be two relatively well subscribed debates to take place under the auspices of the Backbench Business Committee. Brevity is therefore of the essence from Back-Bench and Front-Bench Members alike. I trust that the Minister of State, who has just addressed the House with the eloquence of Demosthenes, will tailor the length of his responses accordingly.
Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
Does this not turn on a very short compass? Will my hon. Friend confirm that the difference is that he intends within 13 weeks to bring forward legislation to ensure that consumers have the lowest possible electricity prices, whereas the Opposition had 13 years in government in which they did absolutely nothing to help consumers with electricity prices?
Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)
These proposals did not feature anywhere in the draft Energy Bill, the White Paper, the technical updates or the impact assessments, so I assume that DECC staff have been working hard on the new idea this morning. Can the Minister guarantee that when he has worked out how to do this, it will not impede the progress of the Energy Bill and its delivery to the House?
Mr Hayes
A yes or no answer would be insufficient to deal with the hon. Gentleman’s question—indeed, it would be almost an insult to him to reduce my answer to that level. Let me be plain, though: the Energy Bill will be used, as the Prime Minister said, as a vehicle to get people the lowest tariffs. We will look closely at the best means of doing that over the coming days and weeks, and the hon. Gentleman will be as excited as the rest of the House when those proposals are published.
Mr Speaker
I think it is a fair summary to say that the House has enjoyed the scrutiny process over the past half hour.