4. What steps he is taking to increase the security of the UK’s energy supply. (4937)

The coalition agreement set out that we will reform energy markets to deliver security of supply and investment in low-carbon energy, and to ensure fair competition, including a review of the role of Ofgem. We will instruct Ofgem to establish a security guarantee of energy supplies, and we will give an annual energy statement to Parliament to set strategic energy policy and guide investment.

In addition, we are bringing forward a green deal as part of the key legislation for the first Session. That will help to close the gap between energy demand and supply in the cheapest way possible, through energy-saving measures.

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. He is an economist, and I am an engineer—

A financial engineer!

Actually, I am a chemical engineer. I believe that engineers should be taken into account when energy security is under consideration. Would my right hon. Friend consider appointing a Government chief engineer to feed into the thinking process?

I have enormous respect for engineers. There are an awful lot of them in my constituency, which is a very manufacturing constituency. Therefore, I think and hope that the country will go on providing greater status to engineers than has often been the case in the past. I am afraid that the question of whether the Government should appoint a chief engineer is above my pay grade, but perhaps my hon. Friend would like to raise it at Prime Minister’s questions.

The UK’s energy import dependency will increase over the next 10 or 20 years, at a time when global demand for energy could increase by 40% over 10 or so years. Given that, what plans are there to reorganise the machinery of government, so that DECC, the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and other agencies can get a better assessment and grip of the geopolitical risks that the UK faces?

I am very grateful for that highly intelligent question which, given his interest in this area, is what I would expect from the right hon. Gentleman. The National Security Council is explicitly charged with the co-ordination of energy security. That will go across Government: it will not be confined to my Department, but will include the Foreign Office and other interested Departments.

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, in that the figures show that, on the worst possible projections, our energy import dependence may well rise from 27% to over half in the space of just 10 years. This is a really key issue, which we need to address.