Climate Change Bill [HL]

In the interests of getting to the nuts and bolts of this, I will give what financial information I have, which may not be sufficient, but will give a flavour. The committee secretariat will be the core in-house analytical resource available to the climate change committee. In March 2007, alongside the draft Bill, the estimate was that the cost of the committee secretariat would come to just over £800,000 a year. Since then, taking account of the pre-legislative scrutiny, and as a result of discussion with the shadow secretariat as it scoped its work, it is reckoned that the resources made available to the committee should be increased by about 50 per cent. We anticipate that the secretariat will consist of about 20 people, representing a larger and more senior secretariat—a similar size and make-up to the team that carried out the Stern review. The other figure that I have—it can only be an estimate at this stage—is that we envisage that the committee will require in the region of £2.6 million per annum once it is put on a statutory basis. Those are the only figures that I have to share with the Committee. By the way, we do not believe that the committee's budget should be dictated by the committee. There is no non-departmental body in Whitehall that fixes its own budget. That may seem a good idea, but I can assure the Committee that that is not how the system works. So we cannot accept that amendment, but we are committed to ensuring that the committee is adequately resourced and will discuss and agree the committee's annual budget with both the national authorities and the committee itself. We do not envisage any difficulties with the devolved Administrations. They have agreed the Bill and the funding mechanisms. We are committed to ensuring that the committee provides good quality independent advice. To do that, it needs sufficient funding to be truly independent. As I said, the figure that I have at the moment is purely an estimate of just over £2.5 million, once it is on a statutory basis. I will seek to get some more information before Report, but it may not be much more detail than that, because these are very early days.