Speeches by Reader.

“Have you ever measured the carbon impact of all those emails that get sent every week, the template ones?”

“Thank you. I do genuinely think that it is a complete waste of time, and it is a waste of public money, because we are all paying for staff to respond to template emails, but I will get off my high horse and move on. Stephanie, is it possible to depolarise climate debates and foster dialogue between opposing groups?”

“Do you think these direct action groups will change their position? Do you think we would get Just Stop Oil or Insulate Britain to come to a conversation with climate sceptics, hear their views and change and come to a common understanding, or are they very much set in their ways—it is their way or no way? They know ri…”

“Lorraine, my final question, how do you think that the Government could constructively engage with these types of groups to help deliver their energy transition policies?”

“Angharad, can you give me an example of where Greenpeace has come with a policy position—you have listened to sceptics, and your position might have changed to accommodate bringing people on board.”

“Did that dialogue move Greenpeace’s corporate position on energy transfer in the north in Scotland?”

“Your position does not change even when you engage with others. You are not trying to find consensus.”

“This is probably a question for Lorraine, because it is very easy when there is a local scheme for people to find a snappy reason to object rather than a snappy reason to support. Why do you think that is?”

“They may well come to London. Meanwhile, in the Ox-Cam corridor and the south midlands region, we are struggling for a single voice that is speaking out for our area. That is what devolution will deliver for us. Devolution also saves costs. I am sure that all Members have read the detailed analysis in the Library brief…”

“I could not agree more. I cannot imagine how anyone can deal with the myriad companies working across London. Having just one in Northampton is challenge enough—although it is a good company. Local ownership is central to the Bill, and community right to buy will be fantastic. People have talked about pubs, but a numbe…”

“I cannot understand how anyone could speak against the Bill. It presents a real opportunity to do something different in our local communities. Northampton has been under a unitary system for five years now, after the Conservatives bankrupted our county council, and no one there has ever said to me, “I wish we had more…”

“Smart meters and RTS are the programmes your Department oversees. There was a 15% reduction in smart meter installations last year. We had some quite shocking evidence on RTS, which meant your Department had to step in to stop the roll-out. With the Government getting rid of the IPA and rolling it into NISTA—which argu…”

“Do you actively identify those areas for which other Departments are responsible and put pressure on them? Ultimately, when we had the hearing last week, someone said you were responsible for net zero—I think it was the Government—and it is actually your head on the line.”

“My favourite topic—decarbonising the difficult bits. I want to talk about your role in shaping strategy for other Departments. For my constituency, logistics are absolutely critical. The CCC also recognises that we have to decarbonise the logistics sector to hit our net zero targets, but we have not seen anything from …”

“On the theme of certainty, during the election there was a very clear pledge from the Labour party of £300 off people’s energy bills. There has been a lot of criticism of the Department and the Government for dropping that direct commitment, and you will probably tell me that you have not. Is that still a firm commitme…”

“Do you recognise that, as we picked up on in “Gridlock or growth?”, there is definitely misalignment between this Committee and the Department, and can you assure us that we will not see that in the future?”

“I guess there is a challenge that when you go quickly, you can get misalignment of Government processes and decisions. Jeremy, in our report “Gridlock or growth?”, we were quite critical of the work of the Department and the lack of engagement and transparency with the Committee as we tried to deliver our inquiry. What…”

“I just want to pick up on Polly and Wera’s questions. Secretary of State, you have often said that energy security is national security. Do you still believe that?”

“If, like we do with the transport sector, we overlaid a mechanism like P3M3 to assess the maturity of your delivery, would you be confident that you would be at a good, strong maturity level in terms of delivery?”

“I like the fact that you have a very collegiate style in the Chamber and in the media, but in response to Polly’s question, we have a Member of this House who is essentially risking national security by trying to undermine the energy sector and investment. Do you think your response has been tough enough?”