Climate Change Bill [HL]

I rise briefly to wholeheartedly support the Minister’s stance. He has listened to the Bill’s critics, who said that it was short on adaptation. The series of amendments which he has brought before us today has plugged the gap and enormously strengthened the Bill. More importantly, the amendments are a strategic and proportionate response to the issues. That will help to ensure a consistent and, critically, a joined-up approach right across the public sector. Bearing in mind that we are talking about some 25,000 public bodies, this legislation, like the Freedom of Information Act, has to be focused. The government proposals are balanced and proportionate in that respect. Not for the first time, I find myself in disagreement with my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours. It is interesting that he sees Amendment No. 183A as a panacea. He actually said that he thought that the original Act gave protection to the people who had been his constituents in Keswick and who suffered from flooding but that they had no real recourse against the statutory undertaking on United Utilities. I suspect that the amendment will provide him with no extra cover at all. I would argue that if the Bill is to be effective in that respect there will have to be one person at the head directing and focusing it, and that that person is the Secretary of State. I fully support the Minister’s statement in that respect.