§
The Electricity Lighting (Clauses) Act 1899
1. The Schedule to the Electric Lighting (Clauses) Act 1899 (as incorporated with the Electricity Act 1947) shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs 2 to 14 below.
2. At the end of section 1 (interpretation) there shall be added—
The expression 'private supplier' means a person other than an Electricity Board who supplies electricity generated otherwise than by an Electricity Board.".
3. In section 2 (definition of "the Undertakers") the words from "forty-nine" to "fifty-eight" shall cease to have effect.
4. For section 49 there shall be substituted—
§ "Meters to be used except by agreement
§
49.—(1) This section applies to—
(a) a supply by the Undertakers to an ordinary consumer, and
(b) a supply by a private supplier to a person (other than the Undertakers) who takes the supply directly from electric lines belonging to the Undertakers,
789
unless otherwise agreed between the Undertakers and (in a case within paragraph (a) above) the consumer or (in a case within paragraph (b) above) the private supplier.
(2) The value of a supply to which this section applies shall be ascertained by means of an appropriate meter duly certified under the provisions of this Schedule, and fixed and connected with the Undertakers' lines in some manner approved by the Secretary of State.
(3) References in this section and the following sections to the value of a supply are references to the amount of energy supplied or (according to the method of charging) the electrical quantity contained in the supply.".
5. In section 50 (certification of meters) for the words "electric inspector appointed under this Schedule" there shall be substituted the words "authorised person".
6. After section 50 there shall he inserted—
§
"Persons authorised to certify meters
50A.—(1) The reference in section 50 above to an authorised person is a reference to—
(2) The Secretary of State may authorise a person who manufactures or repairs meters to certify, in accordance with section 50 above, meters manufactured or repaired by him.
(3) An authorisation under this section may be given subject to such conditions as the Secretary of State thinks fit and may be withdrawn before the end of the period for which it is given if any of those conditions is not satisfied.
(4) The Secretary of State may make regulations prescribing fees to be paid to him by applicants for or holders of authorisations under this section towards administrative expenses incurred by him by virtue of this section; and different fees may be prescribed in relation to different areas and different cases.
§
Uncertified meters—offences
50B. —(1) If the Undertakers or a private supplier install a meter for the purpose of ascertaining the value of a supply to which section 49 above applies and that meter, at the time when it is installed, is not a certified meter, the Undertakers or the supplier shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) Where a meter used for the purpose of ascertaining the value of a supply to which section 49 above applies ceases to be a certified meter, the person providing the supply shall as soon as practicable take all reasonable steps either for causing the meter to be recertified or for causing it to be removed or (if its removal is not reasonably practicable) for ceasing to supply energy through it.
(3) A person who fails to take the steps required of him by subsection (2) above shall be guilty of an offence unless he shows that the meter ceased to be a duly certified meter by reason only of its being altered or moved without his knowledge.
(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale (within the meaning of section 75 of the Criminal Justice Act 1982).
(5) Proceedings for an offence under this section shall not, in England and Wales, be instituted except by or with the consent of the Secretary of State or the Director of Public Prosecutions.".
§
7. In section 51 (meter examiners to certify meters)—
8. In section 52 (Undertakers to supply meters if required to do so) for the words "the supply" there shall be substituted the words "a supply by the Undertakers".
9. For section 53 there shall be substituted—
§
"Meters not to be connected or disconnected without notice
53.—(1) No meter used or to be used for ascertaining
790
the value of a supply to which section 49 above applies shall be connected with, or disconnected from any electric line belonging to the Undertakers by the Undertakers, the person supplied (or to be supplied) with energy or, where the supply is by a private supplier, that supplier unless the person intending to connect or disconnect the meter has given to the other pe:':son or persons mentioned above not less than forty-eight hours' notice in writing of the intention to do so.
(2) A person who contravenes this section shall be guilty of an offence ar.d liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale (within the meaning of section 75 of the Criminal Justice Act 1982).".
10. In section 54(1) (consumer to keep meters in order) for the words, "the supply" there shall be substituted the words "a supply by the Undertakers".
11. In section 55 (power of Undertakers to let meters) for the words "the supply" there shall be substituted the words "a supply of energy".
12. In section 56 (Undertakers to keep meters let for hire in repair) for the words "the supply" there shall be substituted the words "a supply by the Undertakers".
13. For section 57 there shall be substituted—
§
"Questions as to correctness of meter to be determined by meter examiner
57.—(1) Any question—
may be referred by any of the persons concerned to a meter examiner appointed under the Electricity Supply (Meters) Act 1936 for determination by him; and in this section 'the persons concerned' means the Undertakers, the person supplied and, where the supply is by a private supplier, that supplier.(2) Before determining a question referred to him under this section, the meter examiner shall give notice to the other person or persons concerned; and his decision shall be final and binding upon all the persons concerned.
(3) A meter examiner determining a question referred to him under this section may make awards of costs or expenses as between the persons concerned.
(4) In the case of a supply by the Undertakers the register of the meter used to ascertain the value of the supply shall, except as provided by this section, be conclusive evidence in the absence of fraud of that value.
(5) The Secretary of State may by regulations—
14. For section 59 there shall be substituted—
§
"Undertakers may place meters to measure supply or to check measurement
59.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, the Undertakers may place upon the premises of any person supplied with energy directly from electric lines belonging to them such meter or other apparatus (in addition to any meter to ascertain the value of the supply) as they may desire for the purpose of ascertaining or regulating the amount of energy supplied to him, the number of hours during which the supply is given, the maximum power taken by him or any the]. quantity or time connected with the supply.
(2) A meter or apparatus placed upon premises under this section—
791
§
The Electricity Supply (Meters) Act 1936
15.—(1) Section 1 of the Electricity Supply (Meters) Act 1936 shall be amended as follows:
(2) In subsection (1)—
(3) In subsection (3), the words "by any consumer or the undertakers as the case may be" shall cease to have effect.
16.—(1) Section 2 of that Act shall be amended as follows.
(2) In subsection (1), for the words "by those undertakers" there shall be substituted the words "(whether by the undertakers or by another person) directly through lines belonging to the undertakers".
(3) In subsection (2), for the words "by the other parties" (in both places where those words occur) there shall be substituted the words "through lines belonging to the other parties".
(4) In subsection (3), for the words "by the undertakers" there shall be substituted the words "through lines belonging to the undertakers".
§
The Electricity Act 1957
17.—(1) Section 30 of the Electricity Act 1957 shall be amended as follows:
(2) In subsection (1)(c), for the words "the supply" there shall be substituted the words "a supply".
(3) After subsection (4) there shall be inserted—
(4A) Where a person other than an Electricity Board submits a meter to a meter examiner for certification under the provisions of the Schedule of 1899, the meter examiner may certify the meter, notwithstanding that he has not himself examined or tested it, if—
(4) Subsections (5) to (8) shall cease to have effect.
(5) In subsection (9), for the words "the supply" there shall be substituted the words "a supply".'—[Mr. Gray.]
§ Brought up, read the First and Second time, and added to the Bill.
9.29 pm§ Mr. LawsonI beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.
The Bill is complex and has been skilfully steered through its Committee and Report stages by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State and my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State. I commend them both for that. Although the Bill is complex, its purpose is simple—to encourage the private generation of electricity in Britain. As I reminded the right hon. Member for Lanarkshire, North (Mr. Smith), private generation is not new in Britain. At present, industry generates about 15 per cent. 792 of its own electricity requirements. However, that is less than in many other countries and the proportion has been declining in recent years.
The purpose of the Bill is to reverse that trend by enabling the private sector to compete on fair terms and so help to reduce the extent of the nationalised electricity supply industry's monopoly power. The greater the amount of competition, the greater the spur to efficiency and the greater the benefit to the consumer.
Many of my hon. Friends are disappointed that the Bill does not go further and reorganise the entire electricity supply industry. That is an important subject that has received much attention in the past and will no doubt continue to do so. But meanwhile, whatever the eventual shape of the electricity industry, the Bill is needed. It opens up the national transmission and distribution network as a common carrier for the first time and private electricity generators will have access through the network to any customers, including plants that they own, for the first time. The state-owned industry will have a clear duty to accept privately generated electricity at a fair price and to provide a standby supply. The arbitrary and unnecessary ban on the private generation of electricity as a main business will be removed.
One important consequence of the encouragement of private generation will be the boost that it gives to combined heat and power schemes that are normally the most economic and energy-efficient form of generation for industry. In many cases it will be only by putting to good use the otherwise waste heat produced as a by-product of electricity generation that industry can secure a worthwhile return from generating its own power.
Although about two thirds of existing private industrial electricity generation takes the form of CHP schemes, the nationalised industry, at least outside the midlands, has shown little enthusiasm for the idea. Accordingly, the Government were happy to accept in Committee a new clause moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire, South-East (Mr. Rost)—I congratulate him on the way in which he has consistently ploughed that furrow for many years—extending the statutory duties of the electricity supply industry to encompass economic—I stress the word "economic"—CHP schemes.
The Government further demonstrated their open-mindedness in Committee—I am glad that the right hon. Member for Lanarkshire, North, who is a little grudging in his acceptance of the way in which we responded to his points, had the grace to say that we had been open-minded throughout the passage of the Bill—
§ Mr. John SmithI did not say that.
§ Mr. Lawson—by accepting a new clause moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Exeter (Mr. Hannam) to place the Electricity Consumers Council on a statutory basis for the first time.
§ Mr. SmithThe Secretary of State's recollection of today's events is imperfect because he has not been here much. I congratulated Ministers in one instance on their acceptance of reality. I did not give them the extensive congratulations suggested by the Secretary of State, because I am sorry to see most of the Bill still intact.
§ Mr. LawsonI am sorry to say that my characterisation of the right hon. Gentleman as grudging is truer than I envisaged.
793 Clause 3, and the possibility of privately owned nuclear power stations, has also generated a great deal of heat. Contrary to what the right hon. Member for Lanarkshire, North (Mr. Smith) said, I have been present for much of today. His argument—I flatter him by so describing it—was completely demolished by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State. So well did my hon. Friend demolish that argument that the right hon. Gentleman was hard put to it to find any reason for voting for his own new clause. However, I shall return to the main theme of the Bill, which is the encouragement of private generation.
The Bill does not confer any privileges on private generators, but ensures a fair deal for them from the state-owned monopoly. Too often that has not been the case—I have had several representations to that effect. Great care has been taken to ensure that the electricity supply industry's customers suffer no net disadvantage. The industry has been consulted exhaustively and it is satisfied that the proposed regime is both workable and fair.
The electricity supply industry does not fear the spur of competition. The irrational fear of competition is, alas, a chronic condition from which the Opposition suffer and, I suspect, one of the many reasons why they stand in such low esteem with the electorate.
However, the Opposition's protestations will not divert us from our purpose. The Government were elected to increase the consumer's freedom of choice, to reduce the role of the state in the economy, to curb monopoly power and to open state-owned industries, as far as is possible, to the discipline of the market place. The Bill offers useful progress in that direction in the crucial business of electricity supply.
As I have already acknowledged, the Bill does not go as far as some of my right hon. and hon. Friends would like, but it breaks important ground. It establishes the fact that, where a private supplier can match the state-owned monopoly on quality, price, safety standards and the like, he should have every opportunity to compete on fair and equal terms. Unregulated monopolies will always exploit their market power to prevent competition, and an element of regulation is the price that they must pay for monopoly privileges. The Bill strikes a proper balance between the rights and obligations both of the electricity supply industry and of the private generators of electricity. I commend it to the House.
§ Dr. J. Dickson MabonThe trouble with the Bill is that it is an exaggeration for the Secretary of State to claim that it does all that he says it does, even though there is a suggestion that his right hon. and hon. Friends do not believe that it goes far enough.
The Committee stage was not entirely agreeable, but it provided a great deal of information. The point that there is no substantial development in private generation in the near future—[HoN. MEMBERS: "Rubbish".] I am sorry, but that is what the Minister told us. If called upon to do so, I can quote the exact column of the sixth sitting of the Committee. It is an exaggeration to suggest, as have the official Opposition, that the Bill will open up such a supply of generation as will wreck the system. The two great parties are characterising the Bill in opposite ways to the point where it is almost unrecognisable.
My party has no objection to the Bill in regard to the introduction of the private supply of electricity. To that extent, I agree with the Secretary of State that it is breaking 794 new ground, but the idea that the Bill will introduce a substantial factor is nonsense. It is nonsense for the Secretary of State to pretend that it will do that and it is nonsense for the Opposition to suggest that it will privatise or even nearly privatise the generation of electricity in Britain. It merely opens up competitiveness. If the Bill were entirely even-handed—it is not—that could be true.
The Secretary of State and his Ministers have piloted the Bill through well. I freely acknowledge their industry, attentiveness and co-operation, with the exception of one, who is not here. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Bill is not all that important in terms of its physical impact on the economy of our country. It may lead promisingly in the area of combined heat and power, but I do not believe that even the wildest expectations of the hon. Member for Derbyshire, South-East (Mr. Rost) will be fulfilled by what the Secretary of State proposes in the Bill. A more substantial measure is needed. I am only sorry that the Bill is not of the stature that the demands of the hour require.
We made it clear on Second Reading that our fundamental objection at this stage was that the generation of nuclear power should be in private hands. We submitted our case on Second Reading. Members have tried hard to decry what we said and suggested that we did not believe it. We believe profoundly in what we said. It is for Parliament to decide whether or not we take this fateful step to allow private industry to go into nuclear power generation.
We tried in Committee to amend not only clause 2 but clause 1. The votes in Committee taken on 21 December, in Divisions Nos. 5 and 6, show emphatically that the Government would not change their mind on the subject. We tried earlier to persuade them that they might change their mind in proceedings in the other place, but clearly the Secretary of State is immovable.
We shall vote against the Bill as a protest. We shall vote against it because it seeks to deprive Parliament of its full role. In the last few minutes of the debate on Report the Under-Secretary of State uncharacteristically gave the show away by saying that Parliament would play a role. The Secretary of State nods his head vigorously. Parliament should play the role of allowing private industry to be involved in nuclear power generation. Surely we have learnt that over the past quarter of a century.
On this fundamental point there is no reason why we should continue to support the Bill. For that reason, my right hon. and hon. Friends in the Social Democratic and Liberal parties will vote against the Bill on Third Reading.
§ Mr. Peter Rost (Derbyshire, South-East)I have sat silently and patiently throughout the day, so I hope that the House will allow me three minutes to lend my support to this excellent Bill.
I believe that the Bill will prove to be far more important and will lead to more important reform than the House, and certainly the outside world, realise. Industry will come to see the advantages of being able to generate cheaper power and cheaper heat. I believe that the consumer, too, will come to see the advantages. This will provide a fair deal for the private generation of electricity and in doing so will offer the opportunity for competitive heat and power generation in this country. It will provide a grid for joint use and will encourage the private generator to sell electricity not only to himself but to anyone else to 795 whom he wishes to sell it. It will allow fair prices for surplus electricity going from the private sector to the public sector.
I have no doubt that on the industrial side it will lead to the development of combined heat and power. I am particularly grateful to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for accepting the amendment to clause 16 which will do a great deal to set the scene for the development of larger scale district heating using the reject heat from our power stations, which is so shamelessly wasted in this country compared to the 3,000 cities in Europe that are provided with relatively cheap heat.
The electricity industry is also adopting a new attitude. It is now beginning to see the advantages of trying to market heat as well as electricity. In the east midlands, in particular, there is a new mood of enthusiasm towards combined heat and power and district heating schemes.
I wish to quote from a letter that lends support to the legislation in a more relevant and precise way than the Opposition are prepared to accept. There are already enterprises in Britain in the private sector that promote the production of heat and electricity. There is one publicly quoted company which is already in the business, and has been for a number of years—Associated Heat Services, a £20 million public company. The National Coal Board owns one third of the equity. It has already installed heating equipment and service, manages boiler houses and produces electricity in more than 1,000 installations. For example, it has installed a district heating scheme in Nottingham which produces heat from refuse and provides electricity. It has recently modernised the Battersea district heating scheme.
The chairman of the company, in welcoming the legislation, said:
we look forward to the opportunities provided by the proposed new legislation contained within the Energy Bill. This will enable us to accelerate the application of CHP in the industrial sector and help reduce energy costs to the industrialist.During the last few years we have found that the 'buy-back' and standby tariffs indicated by the CEGB have been weighted to effectively prevent the development of CHP, whilst in other countries evidence of the greater competition created amongst power generation companies has resulted in lower increases in electricity costs. This, of course, means that goods produced in this country are often uncompetitive in consequence.We are ready and eager to play our part—indeed, we are already doing so in developing ways in which heat and steam can be produced from waste. I am confident that we can similarly offer lower energy costs to industry by building, financing and operating CHP schemes which will be made possible only provided the Energy Bill is adopted.That is a positive evidence from someone already in the business, who has achieved a great deal in providing cheaper heat and electricity in Britain. His company welcomes the legislation and, in due course, consumers will do so also.
§ Mr. PalmerThe Secretary of State is proud of his child, but there are few apart from him who take that view. In my humble judgment, it is a poor little waif of a Bill. Who really wants it?—certainly not the electricity supply industry. For a time, Ministers tried to pretend that the Electricity Council was not actively opposed to the Bill. In fact, both the council and the boards detest it. The documents quoted in Committee by the Opposition proved that.
796 The trade unions in the electricity supply industry are as responsible a bunch as anyone is ever likely to meet. They have campaigned actively against the Bill and have taken their objections to the Minister's office many times, as he well knows.
The hon. Member for Derbyshire, South-East (Mr. Rost) had to wait until this last moment to find one witness to support his thesis of demand from private industry. The Confederation of British Industry stated, briefly, that the Bill could do no harm, and left it at that. It is said that the Bill will encourage the production of combined heat and power. There was nothing in the original Bill to that effect. Indeed, the Secretary of State, who is no friend of the nationalised industries—he makes little secret of his enmity towards the electricity supply industry—has had to include extra powers to start combined heat and power schemes.
The irony is that the Bill has been badly drafted, as was displayed clearly in Standing Committee, with no thought for economic realism or its technical consequences in practice. Indeed, the amendments accepted by the Government are so drastic that it is now doubtful whether the Bill has any life left in it at all. The right hon. Gentleman gave the game away very plainly in the remarks that he made tonight from the Dispatch Box. He said again what he had said already on Second Reading, that the aim is not to constrict private generation in any way but rather to make the electricity boards allow for private generation when planning their own investment.
I have followed electricity legislation over many years and I believe that this Bill is a break in the normal evolutionary tradition of the industry in this country to which all parties and many individuals of varying opinions have contributed. Far from reducing the real price of electricity, it is, I am sure, going to increase it. Certainly the ordinary consumer will not get in future the reliability of supply which he has enjoyed in the past. I am sorry that the House is not in a position to reject the Bill.
§ Mr. John SmithThroughout the discussion of this Bill there has been a clash of approach towards our publicly owned industry. Perhaps the most interesting thing we have seen this evening is the attitude of the members of the SDP-Liberal alliance to this Bill. Having voted for the Second Reading of the Bill, they inform us that they are voting against the Third Reading because of clause 3 of the Bill, which has not been amended as they wanted. The amusing thing is that they were the only party to absent themselves and fail to vote on clause 3 when the matter was decided in the Committee. So the pivotal factor which made the difference between supporting the Bill and opposing the Bill was one on which they deliberately abstained. So they had not only a vote one way and a vote another way but a crucial abstention in the middle. It must make the SDP-Liberal alliance very happy to have covered every point in the political compass.
§ Dr. J. Dickson MabonThat is absolute nonsense, as usual.
§ Mr. SmithThe right hon. Member for Greenock and Port Glasgow (Dr. Mabon) will not get very far shouting abusively from a sedentary position. These are the facts of the matter and I hope that they will be more widely known throughout the country than the right hon. Gentleman would wish.
§ Dr. MabonWould the right hon. Gentleman do me the kindness of reading the report of the proceedings of the second sitting in Committee where he will see the reference to the Chairman's ruling that amendment No. 1 should be diverted from clause 3 to clause 1 or clause 2. The critical votes were taken at the sixth sitting. Will the right hon. Gentleman apologise now?
§ Mr. SmithI have defended many alleged criminals in my time, but never one with such a weak defence, and I hope that I never have the right hon. Gentleman for a client. The truth of the matter is that when we discussed clause 3 the right hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member for Truro (Mr. Penhaligon) were at junketings in Central Hall to do with the alleged revival of the SDP-Liberal alliance. They absented themselves from their duties in Parliament and therefore missed the vote on the crucial clause.
It is much more important for the House to concern itself with the substance of the debate, which does not come from that quarter.
The Secretary of State put the best face that he could on the justification for this Bill, but neither he nor any of his Ministers, nor indeed any of his hon. Friends who have taken part in this debate, have been able to prove that there is anybody in the private sector who wishes to generate electricity as a main business. Time and again we have asked where the proposals are and what companies are lurking in the wings waiting to generate private sector electricity. The answer is that there is none. So this is not a Bill to meet some demand, wise or unwise, for private sector electricity generation. This is a Bill—
§ Mr. SmithNo, I shall not give way.
This is a Bill to indulge the ideological impulses which drive the Secretary of State for Energy. I am sony that those ideological impulses have led him into grave error in other areas of our energy policy, into the disastrous Amersham sale, into the disastrous Britoil sale, into the forced disposal of Wytch farm—public asset stripping on a scale never seen before.
We know that there is no demand for the Bill. The Secretary of State was motivated entirely by an ideological impulse. His description of the Bill suggested that its purpose was to introduce fair competition between the private sector and the public sector, but when I remind the House of exactly what the Bill does it will be clear that that description is false.
First, the Bill provides that whenever anybody generates electricity in the private sector the public sector will be obliged to take the electricity. That is not fair competition. It is carving out a special guaranteed market for the favoured private sector. Secondly, private generators will have statutory access to the transmission system built up by the public sector. Thirdly, the public sector must guarantee private generators a standby supply of electricity if they run out of their own. If that is fair competition, Adam Smith must be revolving in his grave. It is carving a favoured position for the private sector out of the public sector.
It may be thought that there must be some lack of generating capacity in this country, but in fact there is overcapacity, so any substantial addition from the private 798 sector is unnecessary and wasteful. It is not needed for any public purpose and the lack of demand suggests that it is not needed for any private purpose either.
Why, then, has the Bill been introduced? It is irrelevant to the needs of the electricity supply industry and to the public need for an electricity supply. Its purpose is not to provide combined heat and power schemes, which the Opposition would welcome. If that were the purpose, a combined heat and power scheme Bill could have been introduced. It would have had a very speedy passage as it would have received widespread support from all parts of the House. Indeed, combined heat and power only came into the Bill as a result of amendment in Committee. There was no provision for it or Second Reading. Moreover, as that amendment changed only the public sector responsibility in relation to combined heat and power, it is not really connected with the private generation case.
I fear that the Bill has been introduced because Ministers and especially the Secretary of State feel an obsessive need to ingratiate themselves with the Prime Minister by privatising anything within reach in their statutory domains. The present Secretary of State has been a disaster for energy policy. He has left our oil policy in ruins through the wicked, stupid and senseless destruction of the British National Oil Corporation and the asset stripping now taking place in the gas industry.
I hope that the Bill will not amount to much in the short or the long term and that because there is no demand and no obvious use for private sector generation the provisions will not be used. Whether the Bill is used or not, however, it will remain a testimony to the absurd ideological obsessions of the Government—no better typified than by the present lamentable Secretary of State for Energy.
§ Mr. LawsonWe have very little time, as there is business later this evening that is particularly close to the hearts of the official Opposition. Despite the posturing of the right hon. Member for Lanarkshire, North (Mr. Smith), the only real acrimony came when he engaged with his former right hon. Friend and successor as Labour Minister of State, Department of Energy, the right hon. Member for Greenock and Port Glasgow (Dr. Mabon). If, as I suspect, they carried on in that way when they were in the same party, it is no wonder that things have reached the pass that they now have in that party.
The right hon. Member for Lanarkshire, North accused the Government of introducing an ideological Bill. He fails to understand that it is for him to show why there should be a statutory ban on the private generation of electricity as a main business. He has made no case whatever, although as long ago as 1980 my predecessor, now Secretary of State for Transport, committed the Government to removing that ban.
The additional element in the Bill gives the autogenerator—someone who is generating in the private sector not for his own purposes but to supply other people on the grid—a fair crack of the whip. It is not ideological. I have received many representations about it. If the right hon. Member for Lanarkshire, North (Mr. Smith) knew anything about the matter, he would know that private sector generators feel that they have not been having a fair crack of the whip. The Bill will provide useful advantages, increased competition and opportunities for industry where they are badly needed.
799 I ask the House to support the Bill with a handsome majority.