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Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that, and I am sure that the Minister is as well. Our old friend guidance is something that any Minister can reach for with a sigh of relief and in a relatively unconstrained way. Guidance does not require any parliamentary process. Unlike primary or delegated legislation, it can be issued at the whim and fiat of the Minister. It is then increasingly held to have the force of law. My hon. Friend is correct that it is entirely possible that guidance could be issued to the regions on how they might go about setting the targets that the Minister said they will be allowed or, indeed, encouraged to do. However, that still does not get around the problem of the regions’ targets not summing up to the national target that the Government set. Guidance would not solve that unless there is an iterative process between the Government at a national level and the regions as to how, on the one hand, they allow the regions to set their own targets and, on the other, they square it with the national targets. We do not know whether that is the case, however, because we have not heard from the Minister. Sadly, these debates are not structured in that way. We will not hear from him unless he wants to intervene, and there is no sign that he does because he has not thought about any of this. I do not know whether my hon. Friend, with his extensive ministerial experience, finds that convincing, but it is the only explanation that I can offer to get around the problem that the Minister has set for himself and his officials. I am not sure whether it would work.