SCOTLAND’S new parliament has called for power over energy to be devolved away from Westminster, but was immediately knocked back by the UK Government.
On Thursday afternoon, MSPs voted by 70 to 54 to support an SNP Government motion calling “for all energy powers to be immediately devolved to the Scottish Parliament”. Amendments tabled by all five opposition parties – Labour, Reform UK, the Greens, Tories, and LibDems – all failed to pass.
Most energy policy is reserved to the UK Parliament, including electricity generation and transmission, and oil and gas licensing.
The UK Government quickly rejected the calls for it to be devolved, with a spokesperson for the Scotland Office saying the SNP Government “needs to concentrate on using the powers it has to get the basics right”.
Moving the motion to call for devolution of powers, SNP Energy Minister Stephen Gethins said MSPs were “debating where decisions should be made”.
“Are they better being made here in Scotland's parliament that is voted on by the people who live and work in Scotland, or at Westminster?” he asked.
Gethins argued that the “track record means that Westminster no longer deserves to keep control”.
“The disconnect between Scotland's energy wealth and the daily reality facing households is not inevitable,” the SNP minister went on.
“It is a consequence of a constitutional arrangement that leaves decisions about Scotland's energy in the hands of Westminster, delivering in this energy-rich part of Europe, amongst the highest energy bills anywhere in Europe, and that should be a challenge for each and every one of us in this chamber.”
Gethins further said that the SNP could not support a Green amendment to his motion which aimed to have MSPs agree that “issuing licences to extract fossil fuel from new sources would be indefensible”.
The Energy Minister said it was “vital we have a parallel track approach to the transition” away from oil and gas and that “needs to be an approach for the North Sea … on an evidence-led case-by-case basis where climate compatibility and energy security tests are met”.
Speaking for the Scottish Greens, former party co-leader Lorna Slater said her party “want Scotland to lead a renewables revolution with £600 million of investment in offshore and onshore wind, tidal and solar, including redeploying millions of public funding that has been pledged to unproven greenwashing carbon capture and storage technologies”.
“With our abundant renewable resources, energy should be cheap in Scotland but while Westminster holds the power, we can't make that happen,” she added. “But it's time that we did.”
LibDem MSP Liam McArthur, and his party’s failed amendment to the energy motion, both called for greater benefits from energy developments to flow to local communities.
McArthur said: “If we want to protect households and businesses from the volatility of fossil fuel prices and drive down bills, the generation of clean renewable energy is absolutely vital. But rural and island communities deserve to feel the benefit of hosting developments on their doorstep.
“In Orkney, where we have pioneered developments in the sector for decades but continue to face the highest levels of fuel poverty, islanders know better than most that too often this simply isn’t happening. That’s why I urged the government to strengthen the requirements around community benefit.
“If we get this right, we can deliver strategic investment such as housing in our islands as well as bring down bills. So this is the fair thing to do but also a way of helping drive down the shockingly high levels of fuel poverty that blight our community.”
The debate came after it was confirmed that Ofgem’s price cap is to rise by 13% from July 1 to £1862 a year for the average household – an increase of £221.
Citizens Advice Scotland has said the power price hike will be “impossible for so many people to absorb”.
It said its network had already seen record levels of energy debt in the first three months of the year, rising to an average of more than £2800, with that figure stretching to more than £3200 for rural Scots.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “Families and businesses in Scotland benefit from being part of a much wider GB-wide energy system, and from our drive for clean power to bring lower bills, energy security and good jobs.
“Electricity sourced from the lowest cost generation means lower prices, with system and network costs spread across a much larger customer base. And it means stronger and more resilient energy supply, with peaks and lows of generation spread across the country.
“The Scottish Government needs to concentrate on using the powers it has to get the basics right for people in Scotland – from the ferry network to our NHS and helping people with the cost of living.”
