Energy Bill [HL]

The Minister said that he would discuss some broader points, but he is now on the narrower Bill points again. On this occasion, it is not acceptable—certainly to me—for him to say that he is just going to stick to the Bill when last week it was overtaken by events. The hugely important, historic announcements about electricity price restructuring and the carbon floor are relevant to this Bill; that is what we have all been talking about. It is an absurd use of parliamentary procedure to say, ““My job is to get the Bill through. I don’t want to hear about anything else””. But that seems to be the Minister’s approach. There might be Front Bench agreement on this all being a love affair, but it is a greatly missed opportunity. I would ask the Minister to think again, to discuss the matter with the Treasury and Chris Huhne and to find out whether it is really sensible, given last week’s announcements, which have hijacked this Bill, to go on as if nothing has happened.