My Amendment 95 is grouped with the amendment moved by the noble Viscount, Lord Hanworth. I wish to probe the issue to get a bit more information from the Minister on the shadowy role of the market operator. Before I do that, however, I take the opportunity on this first day in Committee to say that the truncated nature of the parliamentary process, with less than two weeks between Second Reading and going into Committee, has presented certain challenges to those of us who are trying to do our duty and give proper scrutiny to this complex Bill, as my noble friend Lord Crickhowell said. Like others, I thank my noble friend the Minister and the Bill team for the briefings and the clarity of the briefing papers, but that still leaves certain gaps in our knowledge. Noble Lords will be aware that the comments of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee on the Bill were published only on Friday, and we still await the Government’s response. Clearly, we have had to table our amendments before the Government have provided us with the response to important points that the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has made, and that is not particularly satisfactory or helpful.
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It is imperative that the Minister sets out for the record the role and duties of the market operator as the Government view it. In response to my raising this matter at Second Reading the Minister said that the equivalent body in Scotland is the Central Market Agency, but Scotland does not have the upstream competition proposals that we may have, so it is not an exact parallel and the role of this market operator may change in future as the plans for upstream competition develop.
If my reading of this clause is right, the market operator will be subject to the codes that will require the affirmative procedure. But given that the role of the market operator may change as I have just described, the Minister should assure us that the role and duties of this new market operator do not require a separate scrutiny of this company that may yet get statutory powers. I invite the Minister to set out in more detail the role and duties of this market operator.