Energy Bill [HL] (HL Bill 56 of 2015–16)

This Library Note provides background reading in advance of the second reading of the Energy Bill [HL] in the House of Lords, on 22 July 2015.

This Library Note provides background information to the Energy Bill and a brief summary of its main provisions.

The Bill implements a number of the recommendations of the Wood Review into maximising the economic recovery of petroleum from the UK’s continental shelf. In so doing it would establish the Oil and Gas Authority as an independent regulator and transfer a number of additional functions to it from the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Additionally, the Bill would implement the Conservative Party’s manifesto commitment to alter the planning law on onshore windfarms and to end any new subsidies for them under the Renewables Obligation.