To ask the Minister for the Economy when his Department will update the remit of the Utility Regulator to include decarbonisation.

The Utility Regulator operates under an extensive legislative and regulatory framework and is required to exercise its functions in line with a broad range of duties. These include an obligation to exercise its functions in a way best calculated to secure a diverse, viable and environmentally sustainable long-term energy supply, which includes the need to guard against climate change. The extent to which new or amended frameworks will be needed to support the delivery of the Executive’s ‘Path to Net Zero Energy’ Strategy is being assessed by my officials, in conjunction with the Utility Regulator, as an integral part of ongoing policy work.