Climate Change Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, will no doubt remember that we considered that point in the Joint Committee. I was just reminding myself of the evidence we received at the time from Mr Jonathan Brearely of Defra, who suggested that, "““the Committee needed to ‘make recommendations to the Government that are sensible and cost-effective’. This in itself would require a thorough examination of a policy mix. Nor can the Committee make sectoral recommendations, or carry out modelling work, without also evaluating the policies necessary to achieve the carbon reductions. It will need to analyse the effectiveness of existing policy and potential policy instruments and ways these might be improved””." The committee went on to comment in paragraph 144 on page 48 of the report: "““There is no question that this sort of work will lead the Committee into areas which are more political than the current framework for the Bill provides for. When we put the prospect of the Committee having a policy role in this way to Jonathan Brearely, he replied: ‘I think the Committee on Climate Change are going to have to take into account existing policy, and what they are going to have to ask themselves is how much we think the existing policy is going to deliver’. Greater clarity in the statutory duty of the Committee on Climate Change would assist both the Government and the Committee itself. It is essential for the legislation to give the Committee a wider policy evaluation role, and therefore we recommend that the draft Bill include a power for the Committee to carry out an evaluation of current and potential policy when advising the Secretary of State””." In a sense, the amendments—although they are specific and address particular areas—attempt to take us down this road. In light of the clarity of the Joint Committee’s recommendation on this point, this is perhaps an opportunity for the Minister to respond and to make clear how the Government react to that recommendation. I am not clear whether they have included anything in the Bill that covers that point. I, for one, would be grateful to know the Government’s attitude.