Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am in some ways reluctant to respond to the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, with the answers before me, because of the way in which he set out his stall. I was tempted to go down the road of a former Prime Minister on the issue of tuition fees, who said to me when I visited him, ““We’re not going to get anywhere with this. It needs some committee, some Select Committee, some independent committee to come up with it, because if your lot propose it, we’ll oppose it; if we propose it, you’ll oppose it””. That was after I had been dismissed, of course, for making the proposal when I was a shadow spokesman. That works in practice in some ways. However, I have good news. Clause 28 requires the climate change committee to lay an annual report on progress before Parliament. The committee has duties to provide advice on the level of carbon budgets, and to carry out a review of the level of the 2050 target before the end of the year. Clause 30, which I have already drawn attention to, contains a further duty to provide advice on request. Clause 31(1) states: "““The Committee may do anything that appears to it necessary or appropriate for the purpose of, or in connection with, the carrying out of its functions””." If I was being told, ““You’re independent; you’re part of the great and the good; we want you to give robust, independent advice””, and I and colleagues on the committee were minded to say, ““Hang on, these powers enable us to do something””, that would seem pretty wide to me. Clause 31(2) only gives some particulars, stating ““in particular … may””, but subsection (1) states: "““The Committee may do anything that appears to it necessary or appropriate””."