In his second stint as Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks will be hoping he does not have to delve back into the boxes under the stairs and pick out a book he wrote long before becoming an MP — on cold and hypothermia.

Just two years ago, he was reduced to crossing his fingers after forecasts that major industrial users could experience blackouts given icy temperatures, a rising demand for energy and a shortage of gas supplies.

Now the 60-year-old faces the biggest challenge of his career — ensuring that the UK never faces such a gloomy winter again in a world where the thirst for energy continues unabated.

Top of his agenda will be meeting the UK’s energy requirements through his stated aim: a “mixed” policy that combines wind energy with new nuclear power.

Already he has run into trouble with major energy companies such as Centrica, which is furious at the Government’s decision seemingly to rule out pre-combustion technology as the best route to control carbon emissions in coal-fired power stations.

This would have seen coal treated before being burnt as opposed to post-combustion, which filters out harmful emissions as they rise out of the chimney stack. The Croydon North MP has also faced the fury of Scottish

MPs who are fiercely opposed to the idea of new nuclear plants being built north of the border.

Fortunately, Mr Wicks can draw on many years of experience. He was reappointed as Energy Minister in June after an initial spell in the same seat between May 2005 and November 2006. Along the way he has also served as Minister for Science and Innovation.

While he generally flies safely below the radar screen, he has nevertheless played a key role in the Labour Government since 1999, when he was appointed Lifelong Learning Minister at the Department for Education and Employment.

He became Pensions Minister four years later in 2003.

Married with three children, Mr Wicks became an MP in 1992. He has spent much of his adult life in the capital after studying at the North-West London Polytechnic and the London School of Economics.

After a brief career as a social policy analyst for the Home Office in 1968, he became a university lecturer in 1974 and a director of the Family Policy Studies Centre.

His book on hypothermia and social policy is one of several works written during this time.