UK Peers to Quiz Energy Minister on Brexit

The UK House of Lords subcommittee on energy will quiz minister for energy and industry Richard Harrington at 10.30 British Summer Time October 25, it said.

The upper house has been questioning leaders from the academic, industrial and administrative worlds about what impact leaving the European Union will have on the UK. The focus on the October 25 interview will be the UK and its continuing membership of the EU internal energy market, it said.

It will ask Harrington, who reports to Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark, about his vision for the UK’s future energy relationship with the EU and the post-Brexit arrangements for the energy market on the island of Ireland.

Topics the committee said it was likely to cover include: the steps the government will take to ensure the UK has access to the EU workers needed to construct and maintain its energy system; the impact of Brexit on consumers’ energy costs; membership of the internal energy market post-Brexit; nuclear safeguarding and regulation; and what the government will do to ensure the UK can continue to participate in energy research projects with the EU, and how it can maintain a leading role in nuclear research.

The outcome will be a report later this year to which the government will have to respond with a debate in the House of Commons. The enquiry began with interviews on September 6.

William Powell