Lord Jenkin of Roding – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jenkin of Roding on 2014-05-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they intend to publish drafts of the several orders and regulations implementing the electricity market reforms under the Energy Act 2013; when they plan to table motions in both Houses of Parliament to enable the drafts to be debated; and when they expect that any orders and regulations that are approved will come into force.

Baroness Verma

The implementing secondary legislation for Electricity Market Reform (EMR) is currently being finalised. It is the Government’s intention that these regulations will be laid before the House at the beginning of June 2014 and published concurrently.

The regulations will then be scrutinised by both the JCSI (Joint Committee on Secondary Legislation) and the SLSC (Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee). Should the regulations be approved by the committees, then Business Managers in both Houses will be asked to schedule scrutiny debates. Once debated, approval motions will be tabled in both Houses.

Subject to the will of Parliament, it is intended that the Regulations will come into force around 1 August 2014.

Additionally at the beginning of June, the Government will publish the response to four consultations:

· Electricity Market Reform: Consultation on Proposals for Implementation (October 2013)

· EMR: Consultation on industry code and licence modifications (January 2014)

· EMR: Contracts for Difference Regulations – Consultation on Directions to Offer Contracts for Difference (March 2014)

· EMR: Consultation on Balancing and Settlement Code subsidiary documents (April 2014)

We will also publish an accompanying handbook setting out the final detailed policy of EMR, titled Implementing Electricity Market Reform.

The publication of this information alongside the laying of legislation provides certainty to industry on final EMR policy design and keeps EMR on track for delivery this year.