Lord Foulkes of Cumnock:

Moved by Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

28: Clause 26, page 25, line 34, leave out “Environmental” and insert “Environment”Member's explanatory statementThis amendment is to correct a misspelling of SEPA’s name.

My Lords, noble Lords will be glad to hear that this is my last contribution today. I hope fervently that the Minister will at last accept one amendment that I have proposed—Amendment 28, which I now move. In reference to SEPA, the Bill says “Environmental”, but in fact that is a typographical error and it should say “Environment”. We should get the name of SEPA right. If the Minister does not accept that, I shall be astonished, disappointed and upset in every way.

Amendments 29 to 31 and 37 are more substantial. They deal with the protection of commercially sensitive information. It is important to establish a framework for the licence holder to seek to protect commercially sensitive information, which may be monitored, gathered or requested by the regulator. Amendment 29 seeks to allow CO2 transport and storage licence holders to raise concerns regarding protecting potentially commercially sensitive information to be shared with the regulator. It is of particular importance given the long list of persons included in Clause 26(2), as well as the unspecified group of persons under Clause 26(2)(m), which refers to

“any other person the economic regulator considers appropriate who has powers or duties conferred by or by virtue of primary legislation which the economic regulator considers relevant to the exercise of the economic regulator’s functions relating to the regulation of licensable activities.”

That is a big catch-all clause.

Amendment 30, along with Amendment 28, relates to information held by the regulator and seeks to establish a framework for the licence holder to seek to protect commercially sensitive information, which may be monitored, gathered or requested by the regulator or the Secretary of State. The amendment proposes that the Secretary of State will be able to determine that commercially sensitive information can be excepted from the duty to disclose under the power of the Secretary of State to require information in Clause 27.

Amendment 31 mirrors the same protection on information required by the regulator as outlined for the Secretary of State in the legislation, with regard to the licensing of CO2 transport and storage networks. In addition, a new subsection is proposed to establish a framework for the licence holder to protect its commercially sensitive information, as proposed in the previous amendments.

Amendment 32 is relevant to the regulator’s duty to carry out an impact assessment. It ensures that the regulator must act reasonably when determining that it is not necessary to carry out an impact assessment due to reasons of impracticability or inappropriateness. This is important, as a definition of “urgently” is not provided—nor of “impracticability” or “inappropriateness”. Naturally, there would be a presumption that the regulator would act reasonably. However, inclusion of the word here should provide comfort in this regard.

Amendment 37 seeks to establish a framework for the licence holder to seek to protect commercially sensitive information. As I have previously stated, that is of particular importance, given the long list of persons included in the clause to which I referred earlier. I beg to move Amendment 28.

My Lords, the noble Lord will know that I hate to disappoint him on any occasion, so I shall say something unprecedented, which, as far as I am aware, has never been said in this House before: on this specific and limited occasion, the noble Lord is right on this point. I can say with the full force of the Government behind me that we are prepared to accept his Amendment 28, and I thank the noble Lord for pointing out this typographical error.

I move on to the noble Lord’s more substantial amendments, Amendment 29 to 31 and 37, for which I thank him and the noble Baroness, Lady Liddell. These amendments aim to set out further detail on the economic licence for the transport and storage of carbon dioxide. In particular, they concern the protection of a licence holder’s commercially sensitive information from certain disclosure requirements contained in Parts 1 and 2 of the Bill. These provisions, as drafted, enable the Secretary of State and the economic regulator to access information that is necessary for the conduct of their functions. It may be appropriate in some cases for the economic regulator to provide such information to relevant regulatory bodies or entities on which powers or duties have been conferred by legislation, such as the counterparty to the emitter contracts, or to obtain relevant information from those entities to ensure that decision-making is robust and takes into account all relevant considerations. Meanwhile, provision has been made in Clauses 26 and 27 to confirm that appropriate data protection requirements would continue to apply.

The noble Lord can be reassured, I hope, that these provisions were not drafted to facilitate any widespread publication of commercially sensitive information but to enable robust, informed decision-making. Further, the powers limit information requests to those which the economic regulator or Secretary of State consider necessary to facilitate the proper exercise of their functions.

Amendment 32, again tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, seeks to ensure that the economic regulator must reasonably consider whether the urgency of a matter makes it impracticable or inappropriate to carry out and publish an impact assessment for major proposals, or to make a statement as to why it is unnecessary for it to do so. Under current drafting of the Bill, it is where the economic regulator is minded to pursue a proposal which could have a significant impact on licence holders, persons engaged in activities associated with licensable activities, or on the general public or the environment. In such instances, the economic regulator is required to carry out and publish an assessment of the likely impact of implementing the proposal, or to confirm that it considers it unnecessary to carry out an assessment, with the reasons being given for this conclusion. This requirement does not apply if it appears to the economic regulator that it would be impractical or inappropriate, given the urgency of the matter to which the proposal relates.

In some situations, the urgency of the proposal would make it impractical for the economic regulator either to conduct the impact assessment before implementing a proposal or to publish a statement explaining why an assessment would be unnecessary. We think that it is important that the economic regulator is empowered to act swiftly without the need to produce such documentation in the unlikely event that that need arises.

I hope that I have been able to offer sufficient reassurance to the noble Lord in respect of the requirement for the economic regulator to conduct an impact assessment where required before implementing a major proposal, except in the limited situation of potential urgency or emergency. Therefore, with the reassurances that I have provided him, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw or not press all his amendments, except for Amendment 28, which we accept.

My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for accepting and agreeing to Amendment 28. I can assure him that I will not let that go to my head, but I will keep on trying with other amendments. I listened carefully to his explanation in relation to the other amendments. I understand what he is saying and I think it is right, so I will not pursue them.

Amendment 28 agreed.

Amendment 29 not moved.

Clause 26, as amended, agreed.

Clause 27: Power of Secretary of State to require information

Amendment 30 not moved.

Clause 27 agreed.

Clause 28 agreed.

Clause 29: Power to require information for purposes of monitoring

Amendment 31 not moved.

Clause 29 agreed.

Clause 30: Duty to carry out impact assessment

Amendment 32 not moved.

Clause 30 agreed.

Clause 31 agreed.

Clause 32: Enforcement of obligations of licence holders