Climate Change Bill [HL]

I strongly support my noble friend’s proposal that the size of the committee should be increased; that, indeed, was the recommendation of the Joint Committee, which, while accepting that there must be an upper limit, felt that the numbers proposed by the Government were inadequate. I turn to the noble Baroness’s remarks. These issues were carefully considered by the Joint Committee, and I do not share her view that the committee will be inadequate. Various suggestions have been made during our proceedings on how it might be strengthened. I see no reason why, given the right resources, its analytical powers should have shortcomings. My own experience of chairing such a public body is, I am glad to say, that as soon as it is in position, its members become strongly independent, wherever the nominations came from, and come together to act as an effective body. I hope that the noble Baroness will be surprised at how quickly it will start to be an effective team, wherever the representations come from. It is a great privilege, in a short debate, to follow the president of the Royal Society—and the master of my old college. We need to listen carefully to what the noble Lord, Lord Rees, said about exactly how the Royal Society might perform its task. He made it clear that he does not think its role is simply to nominate, but that it can play an even more effective role by putting forward and consulting on the names in the manner that he suggested. We shall have to look carefully at his proposals before we come back on Report. I have some doubt about only one of my noble friend’s amendments, the one that refers to the need for appointments to "““be considered by a relevant select committee of the House of Commons””." My doubt about that is simply one of timing. We are faced with an acute timing problem at present, because we all agree that there is an urgent need for the committee to get on with the tasks that it has been given. Indeed, if it does not get on quickly, it will not be able to fulfil some essential tasks in the timescales that we are setting. That is why it was such good news when we were told during the Joint Committee proceedings that an advisory committee was to be set up exactly as one was set up on the National Rivers Authority. I chaired that committee during the transition phase. I hope that the Minister will be able to tell us a little more about how we are getting on with the appointments and the advisory committee. It will therefore not be possible, unless we seriously delay the proceedings in a way that might be very damaging, to have a great parliamentary approval process on this occasion. I can, however, see the advantage of building such a process into the legislation so that when further appointments are made in later years, Parliament has a role. That is my only qualification of the various amendments that my noble friend has tabled. I am absolutely certain that it is essential, if we are to have the kind of skills and knowledge that we need to be represented, to increase the size, as the Joint Committee proposed. I therefore hope that my noble friend will press the amendments to a vote at an appropriate moment, if not today.