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As amended in the Standing Committee, further considered.

It is always a pleasure to have one’s modest amendments grouped with Government amendments. It reinforces the point that the value of our proceedings is that the Government have been able to table many amendments to improve the Bill as they see fit. No doubt, the Bill will benefit from that in the long run. We shall judge the Government amendments in a moment, but their presence validates the process in which we are engaged in a useful fashion. Conscious of the clock, I shall keep my remarks fairly brief on this occasion and skip lightly through my amendments and the Government’s. Clause 16 raises the slightly shadowy concept of the community energy scheme. Even though a definition is attempted, it is not at all clear to me what a community energy scheme will be, of what it will consist, what its scale might be and—harking back to our earlier debate—what the size or scope of the required equipment might be. If I am not mistaken, it was in the context of community energy schemes that my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) and some of my other hon. Friends, including my good friend the hon. Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone), voiced some reservations about the megawattage that might be required to power a community. My concern is to ensure that when setting about the process of promoting the schemes the Secretary of State will have to consult what I consider to be the relevant bodies—local authorities, distributors and suppliers of electricity and the Health and Safety Executive. The aim is to ensure that the schemes are seen in the proper context. Although we might go into it on Third Reading, I shall not on this occasion explore in detail precisely what a community energy scheme might mean and how it might work, because the subject gets a bit complicated when we get into issues such as qualifying premises, the fact that there must be at least five dwellings, relevant plant, and so on. However, if the concept is to be promoted we must tease out what it means. Clause 16 refers to investment and the provision of advice and assistance. Considerable commitments would be made by the Government, communities or electricity generators and distributors, but it is not clear how the balance would be struck. Amendments Nos. 75 and 76 seek to ensure that the Secretary of State consults the relevant parties before plunging into the attractive but unclear concept of community energy.