In an exclusive column for Utility Week the former Labour MP said that the “rigour and balance” seen in the previous committee under Tim Yeo’s leadership could be lost due to the relative inexperience of the SNP’s Angus MacNeil.
“A respected and knowledgeable committee chair can make a real difference to how policy is developed, implemented and adjusted – as the last parliament showed. Having asked just two written questions of in the last five years, MacNeil’s focus has self-evidently been elsewhere,” Greatrex said.
MacNeil was awarded the top spot on the committee after the SNP’s landslide victory in Scotland secured the party two committee chair seats, which many believe were awarded to party veterans as a reward for long-service rather than a reflection of expertise. In addition, the party put forward just one candidate for each committee meaning the roles were won without contest.
“The lack of an elected chair need not set the energy committee back – it is up to the SNP to decide, as they seemed to have done, to allocate those positions to longer serving MPs rather in the way the whips of the main parties were criticised for doing in the past,” Greatrex said.
But the former Scottish Labour MP warned that MacNeil will need to demonstrate early on “both a resistance to jumping into pursing his party interest first, and that the committee he will lead focuses on evidence”.
“With some of the expertise likely to be present amongst other members, that should be possible. Without it, the very credibility of an important source of analysis could be undermined precisely when the wider energy debate needs authoritative scrutiny of government policy,” Greatrex said.
Greatrex’s full column will appear in the 26 June issue of Utility Week and will also be available online.