Pensions Bill

I thank all noble Lords who have spoken in this debate, particularly those who have supported the amendment and done so enthusiastically. I will seek to respond first to the noble Lord, Lord Mogg, who made a powerful intervention on this issue. I should place on record our thanks for his engagement in the fuel poverty agenda and for working with fellow Ministers. He made it clear, as others have, that pensioners in fuel poverty is just part of the issue. There are many others whom we need to support and help as well. The noble Lord referred to the process as slow-moving, but I am pleased that my colleague Mike O’Brien has fully engaged with it and really helped to move it on: he is extremely committed to that. It is my understanding that the noble Lord is also right on the fuel companies not being constrained by the figure of £225 million. If they wish to double it, or even do a bit more, the Government and those in fuel poverty would be delighted. He also makes an important point about the costs: we need to be clear on them. I think that the costs referred to here are those of dealing with the information exchange, but the noble Lord is absolutely right that we need to be clear who will bear those. We do not want those in fuel poverty to have to bear those costs. Regarding those other than pensioners, the noble Lord asked ““What next?””. I will probably write with more detail on that, as today I have before me the issues on pensions and pensioner credit. A point that arose from discussing the Energy Bill is that, unless data-sharing measures are quite targeted, you run the risk of falling foul of data-sharing legislation, which is why there is a clear nexus between outcomes for those on pension credit and fuel poverty. Applying that to other groups needs more thought and discussion. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, asked what I meant by, as I think he said it, information from energy suppliers being good enough to warrant data sharing. We need to be satisfied that what is on offer from energy suppliers is good enough to warrant data sharing. Obviously, how energy companies deploy the resources that they have voluntarily agreed to make available is, ultimately, up to them. If they chose to make only a portion of that available through this process, we would need to judge whether it is therefore right in those circumstances still to share information and go forward with these provisions. I was trying to make that point. The noble Lord rather unfairly asked why we were treating pensioners as guinea pigs. That is not the case at all. We are taking powers now as we have a legislative opportunity to do so. A lot more work is needed to put them into effect, but there is a clearly identifiable group of people whom we can support if they are fuel poor, and it is right that we should do so.