My Lords, I will also speak to the other four statutory instruments listed on the Order Paper.
As we approach EU exit, the department is working to ensure that our energy legislation continues to function effectively after exit day, ensuring that consumers continue to benefit from reliable, affordable and clean electricity and gas. A significant part of the legislation that governs our energy markets takes the form of direct EU legislation. This will be incorporated into domestic law as retained EU law upon our departure from the EU by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act. These instruments amend EU regulations that will become retained EU law and address a range of highly technical issues, from cross-border trade to the energy market objectives of regulators.
The instruments simply remove inoperabilities in retained EU law in the event that we leave the EU without a deal. In the main, they remove references to the EU and EU institutions that would make no sense following EU exit. This ensures that, in the event of a no-deal exit, we would retain the regulatory functions and frameworks needed to keep Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s electricity and gas markets working effectively, facilitating continuity for UK industry and consumers. This is a sensible contingency to minimise uncertainty and disruption to our energy markets.
The instruments make similar amendments to legislation applying to Northern Ireland and Great Britain, although they are not always identical. This will ensure a consistent approach to retained EU legislation that previously applied across the UK while still recognising the unique nature of the single electricity market on the island of Ireland. On the single electricity market, let me be clear that the Government will take all necessary steps to seek to ensure that it can continue in a no-deal scenario. These instruments help to facilitate that. In preparing this legislation, the department has worked closely with Ofgem in Great Britain, and the Department for the Economy and the Utility Regulator in Northern Ireland.
In sifting this and related instruments, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee Sub-Committee A reported that the draft regulations,
“are necessary to enable UK energy markets to operate effectively if there is no agreement with the EU”,
and that,
“the proposed changes … do not appear to present significant policy or regulatory changes”.
The Electricity and Gas etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations amend and make “workable” the retained EU electricity and gas legislation that was created to harmonise energy markets and regulation across the EU. They also revoke guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure which set out processes for development of EU infrastructure, as these will be redundant in a domestic setting.