Speeches by Chope.

“As the Chair has said, new circumstances provide an opportunity to revisit policies and manifesto commitments. Bearing in mind what is happening in the world, do you think you should renege on your manifesto commitment not to have any more exploration licences in the North sea? That seems rather crazy now, in the light…”

“Minister, you heard the evidence about CBAM, and you say that it is all the fault of the Treasury that it cannot get the resources together to do anything by January 2028. Surely, if you feel very strongly, as I think you do, that we need to protect our four remaining refineries and help them compete in global markets,…”

“They said that if two new officials were appointed by the Treasury, they could get back on the timescale. Do you understand that to be correct?”

“On the CBAM point, to what extent do you think this is impacting or could impact the financial viability of the four remaining oil refineries?”

“Minister, you heard the evidence about CBAM, and you say that it is all the fault of the Treasury that it cannot get the resources together to do anything by January 2028. Surely, if you feel very strongly, as I think you do, that we need to protect our four remaining refineries and help them compete in global markets,…”

“Could it take another year or two to get an answer?”

“They have all been doing very badly, haven’t they? You are giving them these incentives, but over the years the amount of debt has gone up to, as you say, £4.5 billion.”

“Have I misunderstood it, then? If you receive an electricity bill, and it is subject to the price cap, are you saying that the company is not allowed to put on to the bill the costs of unpaid arrears?”

“You do not think this is indulging a sort of “can’t pay, won’t pay” culture, which is what we had when people did not like paying the community charge? Local authorities have enormous powers to take people to court, to confiscate their goods and so on if they do not pay the council tax. Why shouldn’t electricity compan…”

“Your policy on this has contributed to an exponential increase in the debts—the unpaid bills. Remind me of how many billions of pounds are now owed by customers on their electricity bills.”

“£4.5 billion. If you require those companies to recover what is owed to them without giving them a subsidy, surely we would be able to reduce the extraordinarily high sum of money owing. It is related, of course, to us having these extraordinarily high electricity costs, which the Government have promised to bring down…”

“Exactly.”

“What can you do to stop profiteering? Obviously if I have hedged and I have my supply for $25 million instead of $50 million, I could go out and sell that in a subsidiary market now and make profits for my company. Will I then be able to pass on those costs ultimately to the consumer through the price cap?”

“We have seen the lists showing that we have the highest electricity prices in Europe, both for industrial users and consumers. Do you think that, because of the way in which our market is regulated, our prices for consumers will now be below the highest levels in Europe, both for industrial and domestic consumers?”

“The companies that have hedged successfully against this sort of price hike will be able to take that benefit for themselves, rather than have to pass it on to the consumer?”

“How confident are you that all the major players in the industry have themselves insulated by having long-term contracts? That was the problem last time—that a lot of the companies went bust and the taxpayer ended up bailing them out. Can you assure us that that is not going to happen again?”

“Can I ask you about operating costs? Most people would think that it is extraordinary that an electricity company that does not collect what it is owed from its customers should receive some sort of compensation allowance from the regulator. Why do you permit that? Why do not you require energy companies to fund any fa…”

“The consumer and industrial pain is going to be deferred as a result of what you are saying, because unlike, for example, at the petrol pumps, the price is not directly reflecting changes in market conditions. What you are saying is that you are going to prevent the energy companies responding with a price mechanism to…”

“If the Government said that the electricity companies should be given the responsibility for collecting their own debts and that there should not be a levy that everybody else would have to pay, what would be the consequence?”

“You describe these things as bad debts. If they were bad debts, they could be written off. In elementary accounting, if you have a bad debt, an irrecoverable debt, you write it off. What we are talking about though, with a lot of this £4.5 billion, is recoverable debt.”