Chamber and committees

We have a climate crisis, but we also have a cost of living crisis, which is being made worse by energy price increases. I assume that you take responsibility for protecting consumers from the severe energy price increases, which we have heard will increase fuel poverty and have already done so, through the price cap increase. Therefore, there is pressure in the short term to take action.

Bearing in mind the fact that the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility indicated that there was £20 billion headroom in the spring statement, what are you doing to press the Treasury and other departments to provide more immediate support, rather than waiting to see what happens after October to help protect families?

The evidence that we have heard is that the action that has been taken already should be recognised, but rather than waiting to see what happens in the autumn, can measures be introduced now, as opposed to waiting until the winter, when we know that people will absolutely be suffering? That is the message that we have heard from other witnesses and we want to relay that to you.

The other issue is the energy market and how it has—or has not—performed. You seem to be quite optimistic about the state of it. That is not necessarily what we have heard from other witnesses. We heard yesterday from Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, which was clear that there are a number of measures that it would like to take. Your proposed energy security bill seems to be more focused on supply security than on consumer protection. Are you prepared to implement the measures that Ofgem proposes—it must have proposed them to you—to allow it to step in in certain areas and be more severe in ensuring that companies protect individual consumers, and to shift the balance from protecting suppliers to protecting consumers?

Bearing in mind the recent energy price spikes, is there a case for wholesale energy market reform? You have said that gas is the marginal generation technology and sets the price. What options are there? What major changes are needed? Obviously, as the regulator, you need the UK Government to instruct you as to what the changes will be, but what would you like them to be and what do you expect them to be? Bearing in mind the immediate issues that we face, do you envisage any steps being taken in the Queen’s speech today to enable changes to happen?

You will know that, in Scotland, we have an extensive range of renewable assets in generation, and we export much of our renewable electricity. However, your regime is tailored to the United Kingdom market as a whole, so clearly there are inhibitors for the expansion to net zero energy production in Scotland. Not least of those are the exorbitant transmission costs and the danger that, even under the new regimes that might be coming, the subsidy will go to the consumer bases rather than to the generation of energy.

What can be done to ensure that Scotland can contribute to net zero by powering ahead with renewables? What might have to happen in a UK market regime to enable that to happen, and what changes would you see—in transmission charges, in particular?

I am sorry, convener, but I just want to say that there does not seem to be a sense of urgency. During the Covid pandemic, we saw whole-system changes because of a world emergency. I get a sense that the approach is to wait and see, and it might take some years.

What is Ofgem, as the regulator, trying to do to increase the pace, scale and impact of the changes and reforms?

Are you saying that subsidy issues would be addressed by the UK Government in an energy market to deliver what you wanted?

How long will that take? People are facing an energy price crisis now. Some of the changes that we need will require wholesale energy market reform. What would be the desirable timeframe for the wholesale energy market reform to start to make an impact?

You are talking about infrastructure such as our own Cruachan dam, which performs a similar function when it comes to pumped storage.

Can you confirm that we do not necessarily need reforms in the EU market, where we are aligned—possibly until 2026—and that we can do enough in our domestic market to meet the needs of the United Kingdom energy market?

If I understood you correctly, Neil Lawrence, you said that support for individuals and subsidies are the responsibility of Government and that you have limited capacity to intervene, although you can direct and fine companies and intervene if you think that they are not providing sufficient support to individuals. You said that you would welcome legislation to give you more powers. Will you be a bit more specific about what would constitute useful legislation?

We talked about pre-payment meters. Is there, or should there be, legislation that requires an energy supplier to replace a pre-payment meter if an individual requests that it does so?