Peter Aldous urges the Secretary of State for Energy to give high priority to the draft energy Bill as certainty on electricity market reform is vital for investors in the offshore renewable sector.

Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con): What estimate he has made of the level of investment in generating capacity (a) under the existing renewables obligation and (b) in the future. [116500]

The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey): The renewables obligation has succeeded in providing support worth about £2 billion a year to renewable electricity in the UK. Industry announcements over the last financial year amounted to renewables investments totalling £6.9 billion, which potentially will support more than 20,800 jobs. We plan to publish details of the additional investment arising from the RO banding review shortly.

Peter Aldous: To maximise investment in the offshore renewables sector, it is important to provide investors with certainty on electricity market reform as soon as is possible. Will the Secretary of State confirm that progressing the draft energy Bill will be given the highest priority when the House returns and that he will take all other steps necessary to provide this certainty?

Mr Davey: My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and has been a champion of the offshore wind industry. I congratulate him on that. The draft energy Bill has been widely welcomed by many people in the offshore wind industry because they see that it contains the instruments needed. We are pressing ahead with the timetable in the White Paper that we published last July. I am grateful to the Energy and Climate Change Committee for how it has gone about is rapid pre-legislative scrutiny. We will look carefully at its report, and we hope to publish the full Bill in the autumn.

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