Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 183U: 183U: Schedule 5, page 57, leave out lines 29 to 31 The noble Lord said: In moving Amendment No. 183U, I shall also speak to Amendment No. 183V. I do not know to whom new paragraph 6(2) applies. Does it refer to the council and the people operating the system, or to the people who are subject to the system—the residents? The substantive amendment in the group is another probing amendment on the general duty to collect. Clearly I do not wish to remove that general duty; I merely wish to probe. Is there not a lack of logic here? If people do not operate the system at all, do not pay their bills and continue to behave in a way that the Government think is undesirable by throwing out too much rubbish—if they are the ““can’t pay, won’t pay”” type of person whom we had with the poll tax, will that not undermine the whole system? In particular, if the population is transient, if there is a wilful refusal to pay or if it is impossible to track people down in HMOs and so on and the Government say that the rubbish will go on being collected anyway, which clearly it must for health and environmental reasons and for the amenity of the neighbours, will not the whole system be brought to its knees by people not co-operating with it? I beg to move.