Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 168D: 168D: Clause 40, page 19, line 39, leave out paragraph (g) The noble Duke said: In moving the amendment I shall speak of our misgivings about the contents of Clause 46. The definition of enactment is contained in Clause 69, which refers to, "““an enactment contained in subordinate legislation within the meaning of the Interpretation Act 1979””," and legislation under an Act of the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland legislature or the National Assembly for Wales. That seems clear enough, except that the definition begins by saying that enactment ““includes”” these things. This implies that it could mean something else or include something else in certain circumstances. There is possibly room for definition but it is not separately defined in Clause 47 on the interpretation of Part 3, which covers this clause and Clause 46. The Explanatory Notes do not help us any further. Our concern is that Clause 40(3)(g) refers to, "““an enactment contained in primary legislation””," while Clause 46(a) contains the phrase, "““repealing or revoking any enactment as the authority considers appropriate””." Clause 46 relates to the devolved legislations. We have already indicated some of our concerns about the possible ways in which the national authorities may or may not be allowed to set up trading schemes. We wish to ensure that there is no possible way in which the legislation could be interpreted to allow a devolved Administration to amend primary legislation, possibly only within the confines of its own borders, when it was introduced by the UK Parliament. I beg to move.