Speeches by Hobhouse.

“Jim Shannon will still have two minutes, and then I will impose a formal time limit of 90 seconds.”

“I remind Members to please stick to the informal time limit. If they do not, I will have to make it a formal time limit.”

“I remind all Members that they should bob if they wish to speak. The debate will run until 3.10 pm, and I intend to call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson at 2.38 pm.”

“Thank you. That ends the statement.”

“Last week I visited ReMind, a dementia charity in Bath. In an earlier answer, the Leader of the House mentioned the modern service framework for dementia and frailty that was promised in the NHS 10-year plan. Can we have a statement from the Health Secretary when that framework is forthcoming, given the urgent need for…”

“I remind Members that we have to finish the statement at 1.50 pm. Anyone who wishes to speak, please bob—including the Minister, if she wishes to ask a question. Please keep comments short, and Members can only ask one question.”

“We begin with a Select Committee statement. Andy Slaughter will speak on the publication of the second special report of the Justice Committee, “Work of the County Court: Government Response”, HC 1387, for up to 10 minutes, during which no interventions may be taken. At the conclusion of his statement, I will call Memb…”

“Is the problem not that community energy groups are dependent on the big retailers that take their energy? Currently, community energy groups are quite small. They cannot sell directly to the consumer. They are always dependent on the middle person, i.e. the big energy companies, who takes their energy for little money…”

“Coming back to specialist status, would that also allow for reserving grid capacity? How would that make the project development more efficient? Would you agree that that would happen?”

“Would specialist status help community groups through the process?”

“Throughout today’s very lively session, we get one thing. We need a definition. There are several definitions. That would help to create something like as a specialist status for community energy. We can then take it from there. What I also hear and would like to repeat loud and clear is that community groups need some…”

“I have just one more question about GB Energy. Could GB Energy assist community projects in this way? Another question that I have is connected to that. I talked to the Energy Saving Trust this morning, which said that, under GB Energy, there should be something such as a community energy support scheme or service. GB …”

“It would, therefore, avoid the delays that we have been talking about.”

“That is fair enough. Can you quickly explain how grid allocation would work technically? How would that be done?”

“I do not want to have another discussion about the definitions of what community energy is. I was just trying to understand what is needed. If we are talking about grid allocation, it is a different thing depending on whether it is on the transmission network or on the local grid network. Is that correct?”

“That is interesting to clarify: so the shared ownership model then suddenly changes the game, but most community energy projects are the small things that are ultimately just serving the local area and therefore do not need the big transmission grids.”

“We have already heard quite a lot about designation and the question whether there should be grid space designated for community energy. My first question is whether community energy projects all need the big transmission network, or whether they can stay local. That is for me also somewhat the essence of community ene…”

“So far, I can only buy a battery with solar panels, but I am wondering whether technically I could just have the battery because I do not have a roof. I could, but you say it is a cost—”

“Is the problem not that community energy groups are dependent on the big retailers that take their energy? Currently, community energy groups are quite small. They cannot sell directly to the consumer. They are always dependent on the middle person, i.e. the big energy companies, who takes their energy for little money…”

“I have a very quick question. I now have solar panels and a battery, so my battery can actually store something. I could run my washing machine in the middle of the night, because I have five kilowatts in my battery. Could consumers not simply buy a battery and get the electricity during the day and then run their wash…”