Lords concludes detailed check of Energy Bill

The Energy Bill aims to increase energy reliability, while supporting the UK's climate change commitments and minimising consumer costs, by leveraging investment in clean technologies and maintaining the safety, security and resilience of energy systems.

Line by line examination

Committee stage is the first chance for line by line examination of the bill.

Six days of consideration were scheduled for committee stage in the House of Lords.

Monday 16 January

Proposed changes

Members speaking on day six of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) on subjects including:

• strategic priorities of the government's energy policy
• gas and oil production
• energy storage targets.

Catch up

• Catch up on Parliament TV
• Read the Lords Hansard transcript

Explore further information

Read background on the bill in the House of Lords Library Energy Bill briefing.

Next steps

Report stage, a further opportunity to closely scrutinise elements of the bill and make changes, is yet to be scheduled.

What's happened so far?

Committee stage day five: Monday 19 December

Proposed changes

Members speaking on day five of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) on subjects including:

• heat networks and their energy sources
• protection for consumers that use heat networks, such as district heating schemes
• community energy generation
• energy smart appliances.

Catch up

• Catch up on Parliament TV
• Read the Lords Hansard transcript

Committee stage day four: Wednesday 14 December

Proposed changes

Members speaking on day four of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) on subjects including:

• establishing a new nuclear site licensing regime
• limiting temperature increase to 1.5 degress celcius as in the Glasgow Climate Pact 2021
• a competitive tender process for electricity.

Catch up

• Catch up on Parliament TV
• Read the Lords Hansard transcript

Committee stage day three: Monday 12 December

Proposed changes

Members speaking on day three of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) on subjects including:

• requiring plans for low-carbon heating of homes that cannot have heat pumps
• adding 'blue hydrogen' to low-carbon heat schemes
• incentivising low-carbon transport.

Catch up

• Catch up on Parliament TV 
• Read the Lords Hansard transcript.

Committee stage day two: Wednesday 7 September

Proposed changes

Members speaking on day two of committee stage discussed amendments (changes) on subjects including carbon capture, the use of hydrogen and the storage of gas in the UK.

Catch up

• Read the text of proposed changes (PDF)
• Catch up on Parliament TV 
• Read the Lords Hansard transcript.

Committee stage day one: Monday 5 September

Proposed changes

Members speaking on day one of committee stage discussed amendments (changes) to the bill covering the affordability, cleanliness, resilience and security of UK energy, including:

• net zero 2050 targets
• clearly setting out the purpose of the bill and legislating for a strategy and policy statement
• energy storage and carbon capture
• the economic regulator and its relationship with the Secretary of State.

Catch up

• read the text of proposed changes (PDF)
• catch up on Parliament TV 
• read the transcript in Lords Hansard.

Second reading: Tuesday 19 July

Members discussed the main issues in the bill during the second reading debate, including:

• safety, security and resilience of the UK’s energy system
  the challenge of climate change
• investment in clean technologies and reducing the UK’s dependency on global fossil fuel markets
• electric vehicle charging points
• smart meter rollout and energy efficiency in housing
• disposal of radioactive waste and clean-up of the UK’s decommissioned nuclear sites
• offshore wind projects
• carbon capture usage and storage
• heat network zoning in England.

Members speaking

Lord Callanan (Conservative), Minister for Business, Energy and Corporate Responsibility, opened the debate and responded on behalf of the government. 

Members speaking included: 

• Baroness Hayman (Crossbench), co-chair of Peers for the Planet
• Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative), president of National Energy Action
• Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrats), member of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit Advisory Board
• Lord Whitty (Labour) former chair of the National Consumer Council.

Find out more about the issues discussed: catch up on Parliament TV or read the Lords Hansard transcript.

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