Climate Change Bill [HL]

We are in very tricky territory, and the Minister is doing very well trying to sort his way through it. Those who are in the Scottish Parliament have always seen it as a problem that they have to pass what used to be known as a Sewel motion, which the Minister described as a legislative consent motion, to a Bill that has not yet passed. As I understand it, we have powers to amend the Bill, although that causes ripples and would be likely to cause a bit of excitement in the devolved legislatures if we started hacking the thing to bits rather irresponsibly. That is why we have to look at these things rather carefully. We all understand that emissions to the atmosphere are a devolved function of the Scottish Parliament and it can legislate as it wishes. I am interested to see this element about the Order in Council being brought into this Bill because, as far as I understand it, the Scottish Parliament does not require Orders in Council in many areas—this must be one of the first—unlike the Welsh Assembly, which relies very largely on Orders in Council, because it does not have the full legislative powers that the Scottish Parliament holds. However, this will help to extend the powers of the Scottish Parliament, if it wishes to deal with matters which are not fully devolved to it. One interesting area is emissions from vehicles, which is not a devolved element and will require uniform treatment throughout the UK—and of course, it would be impossible because who is to say where a vehicle will land up as it travels around. It has been useful to hear the Minister say what powers the Scottish Executive think they may need in having Orders in Council. In the mean time, we will study carefully what he said. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Schedule 3 agreed to. Schedule 4 [Trading schemes: powers to require information]: