Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Wilson of Sedgefield) (Lab)

I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Bennett and Lady Finn, and the noble Lords, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, Lord Sikka, Lord Lilley and Lord Birt, and the noble Earl, Lord Russell, for their contributions, and I thank the Front-Benchers for their summing up. We are where we are with this. We have to play with the cards we have, and we cannot restock the deck because we have been left with this. We do not believe that biomass is a long-term solution to the country’s energy problems, but we are faced with a dilemma at the moment regarding security of supply, whereby 5% of the energy we use is provided and produced by biomass. That is something we have to consider. We know it is not a long-term solution, so we need to look at other sources of energy to replace it. That is what the Government are actively doing—it is part of our net-zero ambitions to do that—but we need time to do it, and to fill the gap we need this statutory instrument in order to go forward and secure that. This Government are steadfastly committed to maintaining our energy security and protecting bill-payers now and into the future. The instrument under discussion today will enable us to reduce risks to security of supply in the late 2020s and early 2030s by facilitating short-term support for biomass. If this is pushed to a vote, noble Lords will be voting against security of supply. Additionally, the regulations allow for the further strengthening of sustainability requirements, to reflect the latest evidence, during the delivery of any support. I hope I can deal with all the questions raised, but if not, I am sure that we can write to Members. Why did we not mention Drax? Supposedly this is about Drax and nothing else, but in fact it is about any biomass facility that can help fill the gap, such as Lynemouth in Northumberland. Other, smaller producers of biomass around the country can also have access to this—I know there have been discussions with Lynemouth—so it is not just about Drax. Why have the Government agreed a high strike price for this asset? The new arrangement halves the level of consumer subsidy compared to existing arrangements, equivalent to a saving of nearly £6 per household in annual bills. The agreement is for a substantially lower reduced load factor. We want seed to be used for 27% of the time as part of the baseload—