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Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill

There is that and more. Time lines would be involved as well. At what times of day might the emissions occur, or during which seasons of the year? What extraneous factors might be causing variations on a daily, hourly or seasonal basis? All those considerations are relevant, but the trouble with the way in which the Bill tries to deal with them is that they tend to be glossed over. That is why I have reservations about the Bill. We would not know how such issues would be dealt with until the regulations underpinning the Bill emerged, were it ever to become an Act. I am sure that the Minister has already given some thought to another question that may arise in Committee, for all I know. Have we any idea of the likely thrust or breadth of the regulations that would be required to underpin these rather wide provisions, or of how effective they might be? I shall leave the Minister to ponder that. He need not present his 10-point plan now, but the issues will inevitably prove to be relevant. Wisely, in my view, the Minister did what the Treasury bade him do, and said ““Not on your life”” when it came to clause 3. The clause seeks to do that worst of all possible things—to dictate to the Chancellor of the Exchequer what he must do and how he must respond. I should have thought that even the hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith would have been a bit wary of doing that, but he has been very bold, stating:"““The Chancellor of the Exchequer must””—" Good Lord! That is pretty brave stuff nowadays, in the new model Labour party."““The Chancellor of the Exchequer must, within one year of the passing of this Act, and annually thereafter, prepare and publish a report on such fiscal measures he considers appropriate””." That constitutes an unwarranted intrusion on the Treasury’s freedom of action, and its imperial position in the Government. No wonder the Minister told his hon. Friend that the clause would disappear silently into the night and the fastnesses of the Committee, and had no chance of re-emerging in any form. The Chancellor’s hand cannot be tied in that way in an Act of Parliament. Such action would be ridiculous. I rather agree with the Minister that we cannot allow this sort of attempt to tell the Chancellor what he will or will not do. That is not to say that the Chancellor may not from year to year, joined at the hip as he is with his colleagues not just at the Department of Trade and Industry but, as we now learn, at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—I do not know how many hips there are in the Government.