Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 137: 137: Schedule 1, page 33, line 34, leave out from ““executive”” to end of line 35 The noble Lord said: This is a probing amendment to question the Government over the independence of the staff of the committee. The Minister said earlier that the chairman of the committee would have to be agreed by the national authorities. We on these Benches do not have a difficulty with this because the committee will represent all parts of the United Kingdom. However, we have a slight issue with the wording of paragraph 11(1), which says: "““The Committee must appoint a person to be chief executive, but may only appoint a person who has been approved by the national authorities””." This may well come into conflict with sub-paragraph (2), which says: "““The chief executive is an employee of the Committee””." If the chief executive is to be employed by the committee, is it right that other bodies can censor whom the committee is to be employed by? If we are saying that the committee is independent of outside interference, should it not be the case that other bodies should not be given the option of veto? Although people have talked about the independence and scientific base of the committee, if it is to be effective in reducing the amount of carbon released in the atmosphere it will affect every aspect of people’s lives. Therefore, every aspect of the committee’s work is highly political. That has many implications for the national authorities. It has already been stated that different energy and planning policies are being looked at by different constituent parts of the United Kingdom. The Minister might say that this has already been agreed with the national authorities. But, if we are talking about the independence of the committee, it is a fundamental flaw to say that the chief executive can be held as a political pawn if one moves on and another is to be appointed by the national authorities to prove a point over one particular aspect of any decision which is difficult at that time. I beg to move.