My Lords, I thank my noble friend and congratulate him on introducing what appear to be largely technical regulations. I have a couple of questions.
My understanding is that the regulations specifically do not apply to Northern Ireland and that it has been excluded. I wondered what the reasoning was for that. As we know, Northern Ireland is back in the news again because of the implications of the Northern Ireland protocol, but, given that an all-Ireland energy market will be in place anyway, what are the implications of Northern Ireland being specifically excluded from these regulations? I understand that the Explanatory Memorandum tells us that this might currently be useful for the Northern Ireland Executive but that they might seek to refer to the statutory instrument and apply it in their domestic legislation in the future. To me, that is particularly unfortunate. It would be helpful to know what the status of Northern Ireland, whose grid system and internal energy market are wholly integrated with those of the Republic of Ireland, will be. In my view, it would be better if all in the UK worked on the same basis from day one. Therefore, my first question is this: what are the implications for the UK’s internal market of Northern Ireland remaining in the all-Ireland energy market?
Secondly, under this statutory instrument, what is the legal position from 1 January for new interconnectors? For example, I understand that there is to be an interconnector bringing energy—presumably electricity and gas—from Denmark. What legal regime will apply? Will that be covered by the regulations before us today or will it be considered at a later date?
The rest of these regulations seem straightforward. I am grateful for the opportunity to comment on them and would be grateful to receive a reply to my questions.
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