BEIS reveals ministerial responsibilities

Four weeks on from the formation of the new government, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has revealed the responsibilities of its ministers.

Since Liz Truss unveiled her Cabinet, Utility Week has been asking BEIS to make clear where the responsibilities previously held by Greg Hands as minister for energy, clean growth and climate change now sit.

While Graham Stuart was appointed rapidly as minister for climate change, the department has only now set out his full responsibilities.

They show that Stuart has taken on the bulk of Hands’ responsibilities directly, however he is only listed as “supporting the secretary of state” when it comes to energy retailers and networks.

The other ministerial roles have been clarified as industry (Jackie Doyle-Price); enterprise and markets (Dean Russell) and science and investment security (Nusrat Ghani) – which now incorporates fusion.

Lord Callanan retains his role as BEIS lead in the House of Lords as well as overseeing clean heat, energy efficiency, smart meters and fuel poverty.

The full list of Stuart’s responsibilities is:

• Net Zero Strategy
• net zero (science and innovation)
• carbon budgets
• low carbon generation
• international energy
• EU energy and climate
• international climate change
• hydrogen
• carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)
• nuclear
• nuclear supply chains
• smart systems

All of the above were formally in Hands’ purview with the exception of the final two.

Meanwhile, all of the following points are assigned to Stuart in support of Jacob Rees-Mogg as BEIS secretary.

• energy retail markets
• oil and gas
• security of supply
• electricity and gas wholesale markets and networks
• energy security (including resilience)

Rees-Mogg introduced his “brilliant” team to the Conservative Party Conference, calling them the “A-Team of ministers”.

At the same conference, Stuart confirmed to Utility Week that BEIS is reviewing the Energy Security Bill – the first piece of energy legislation in nearly a decade.

Meanwhile, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has yet to confirm which minister has responsibility for water, following the departure of Steve Double after just two months in the role.