I am very grateful to the noble Lord for ending on a positive note. I think I can say—I will write to him if I am wrong—that any further SIs will be affirmative. It is important to make a distinction between affirmative and negative orders. The noble Lord will know that, whenever legislation goes through, Governments of whatever political persuasion are often tempted to make some small concessions by offering to turn a negative order into an affirmative one. Oppositions often push for this, thinking that they have achieved some great victory. I have certainly done it in opposition. We then very often burden both Houses with some unnecessary affirmative orders. In the past, I can think of a large number of affirmative paralytic shellfish orders that kept littering the Order Paper. I cannot remember what they were about, but they would probably have been far better left as negative. I can see a Minister at some point making some generous gesture in the course of the Committee on a Bill to suit some Opposition of whatever colour. As far as I know, the orders will be affirmative. If, inappropriately, we try to make them
negative, I am sure that the appropriate committees, chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Cunningham, and others, will correct us.
I briefly—but not completely—apologise for the size of the regulations. Rather rashly, I am tempted to say, “You ain’t seen nothing yet”. Speaking more honestly and frankly, very often, it makes life more convenient for the users if we put everything into one instrument. We get a better end product. The noble Lord is exactly correct in saying that this one is 81 pages long. There are a further few pages of the Explanatory Memorandum. To have to repeat this debate five times with five instruments—five into 80—might be a less satisfactory process. So I do not really apologise; I think this is the appropriate way of getting these things done.
I say the same to the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, who at least welcomed the tone of the Explanatory Memorandum. He told us just how much actions of this sort—even with rising electricity costs—could reduce one’s electricity bills.
I suggest another mechanism: to get one’s children out of the house, which happens when they get to a certain age. The noble Lord, Lord McNicol, shakes his head, but I think the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, knows exactly what I am talking about.