Mr. John Hughes:

The Department is working across government at the moment on a large energy users action plan. This should come to the fore. No doubt in due course the committee will wish to consider this. The plan is reflective of the fact that energy is one of the biggest issues that individual companies raise with the Department and Ministers at the moment, in addition to housing, water, wastewater and so on. It is an area that the Department has particularly seized on. Equally, it is hoped that some of the amendments we are making here will enable individual companies to be able to take ownership of the solutions themselves in addition to what is being done by the centre. I am referring to issues about private wire and private connections. There are a number of companies that I cannot name that already have secured and invested in the production of on-site green energy themselves as they move ahead to obtain a larger supply of secure green energy for themselves.