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Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill

On this occasion, I happily defer to the wisdom and experience of my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope), who has had a distinguished career in local government, as a Minister in the relevant Department and as an eminent lawyer. His comments chime with my lay reservations about this part of the Bill. The Minister did not make much of an effort to give any really good reason for the change. It is no secret that new clause 5 is something that the Government want to do and they are slipping it into this Bill as a precursor to some wider measure. It always makes me suspicious when private Members’ Bills are used as a vehicle to further the Government’s purposes. A worse prospect is the real possibility that confusion will arise between the proposed two-year period and the existing six-month period. What the Minister said, in effect, is that the two regimes will run side by side, both covering building regulations and local authorities, from whenever this provision reaches the statute book—I hope that it does not—and whenever the Government get around to introducing a broader dispensation. We should not be in the business of increasing confusion. If the Government want to make such a change, they should introduce it properly so that it may be scrutinised properly. The most worrying aspect was pointed out by my hon. Friend, based on his legal experience. Even a cursory reading of new clause 5 would make one suspicious that it would radically alter the balance between the individual and the authorities. We should always be very suspicious of such a change and, in my view, we should resist it unless an overwhelming case is made for it. We have not only not heard an overwhelming case today: we have not heard any real case at all. That should give us considerable cause for concern. New clause 5(5) states:"““In the case of proceedings commenced by a local authority . . . evidence is to be regarded for the purposes of subsection (4) above as sufficient to justify the proceedings if in the opinion of the proper officer or an authorised officer it is sufficient to justify the proceedings””." If that is not an example of untrammelled power, I do not know what is. We do not even know who these authorised officers might be, nor what restrictions might be placed on the giving of the power under the new clause. That is a very worrying development. Of course, we will be told that the new clause is all right, because it is going to save the planet. It is not all right. It will not save the planet, but even if it would, we would want much more justification than has so far been offered for what appears to be a fundamental shift in the balance between the individual and the authorities under the apparently innocent provisions in new clause 5.