My Lords, in speaking to the amendments in this group, I particularly thank my noble friend Lady Liddell for the well-informed and detailed explanation of why the amendments in her name and that of my noble friend Lord Foulkes are so important and relevant. What we heard was the crossover between the considerations within these
amendments and the discussions that we had on the previous group regarding the work that we believe needs to be done to strengthen the hand of Ofgem, particularly to justify and evidence decisions, as we heard, enabling strategic anticipatory investment.
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What we have to focus on here, running through all our discussions today, is the sense that we in the UK are falling behind. As described, Amendment 2 in particular speaks to how we can achieve the confidence of investors, and indeed the public, to make the case for the seemingly vast amounts of money that need to be invested—although we know that, in the scheme of what we need to do, the money identified does not come anywhere near the expenditure that we will have to bring forward.
The most important desire in the amendments, which has been eloquently expressed and I hope the Minister can address it, is, particularly in this case, to know how the steps forward will protect the current and future users of carbon dioxide transport and storage networks in particular. Running through all the discussions that we have to have on the Bill is the need to protect the interests of consumers as well as promoting the efficient economic development and operation of the transport and storage networks that we are discussing. The other area is ensuring that licence holders are indeed able to finance activities.
I want to reference the many government amendments; we all know there are many amendments throughout the Bill from the Government, which is worth a comment in itself. I too express frustration that throughout the narrative that is expressed there is ambition and a recognition of enormous potential, but unfortunately, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, so eloquently put it, there is a growing sense from many key players that that ambition and potential have not been matched by action. I hope the Minister can give us confidence that by the end of this week we will get a sense of where that support, and the necessary link to action, will come from. It is an enormous missed opportunity for the whole country and its potential in terms of jobs and providing for our energy requirements that we now have this reputation of falling behind.
Protecting our assets is crucial. I want to add my comments about how the regulations will make access to the infrastructure more appropriate, and how they can amend the carbon dioxide regulations of 2011.
I recognise the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, supported by Baroness Sheehan, and I very much look forward to hearing the answer. Protecting funds in this area has to be critical, but I am not sure that we yet know how that is going to be achieved.