The Earl of Effingham (Con)

My Lords, these regulations relate to the Digital Economy Act 2017, which enables data sharing between public authorities and energy suppliers. The regulations will permit the sharing of information to support the delivery of a debt relief scheme by allowing specified persons to disclose information to energy suppliers for the reduction or cancellation of customers’ debt. The Government have committed to delivering targeted support for households most affected by rising energy costs. The state must help those in need—that is absolutely right—but the reality is that this commitment will do nothing to address the root cause of rising energy costs, which continue to appreciate in part by trying to meet impossible net-zero targets. The most recent contracts for difference allocation rounds held by the Government saw maximum strike prices for offshore wind of £113 per megawatt hour. That is higher than those agreed in previous allocation rounds, higher than the average cost of electricity in the years before and the highest prices in a decade. His Majesty’s loyal Opposition have undertaken the work to tackle the root causes of high energy costs, proposing a cheap power plan to maximise extraction of our own oil and gas resources in the North Sea and to scrap the carbon tax on electricity generation from gas and the renewables obligation subsidy scheme, as well as removing VAT on domestic energy bills. These are constructive proposals endorsed by experts to help tackle the root causes of the cost of living crisis. These regulations add the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to the list of specified persons that may share information. It may help your Lordships’ House if the Minister will clarify why these regulations make provision to share information with DSIT when the Government have, as far as we understand, abolished and dismantled that department. If these regulations help those in need, that is a good thing, but they are short-term and, as the noble Earl, Lord Russell, quite rightly said, alone they are not sufficient. The only sustainable long-term solution is the one proposed by His Majesty’s loyal Opposition that I briefly outlined.