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Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations Order 2007

My Lords, I am a member of the Merits Committee. I wish to raise two questions; the first is technical. The statutory instrument closely follows Section 5 of the 2004 Act and spells out the effect of Sections 124 to 130, but it leaves out Section 131. The scheme tells stakeholders what the civil penalties might be if they do not conform and what rights to object they have, but fails to spell out the appeals procedure. The Minister may say that everyone knows that they can go to the High Court if they are in any kind of civil penalty procedure, if they have objected and are not satisfied with the response. However, it would have been helpful if the appeals procedure under the same Section 5 of the Act had been spelt out in the draft statutory instrument. Will the Minister consider an amendment to include that, as opposed to assuming that everyone would know that they could go to the High Court if they were dissatisfied, as he said in his opening remarks? The second question arises from our discussion, and the comments of my noble friend Lord Hanningfield, about feedstock to bioethanol plants. The Explanatory Memorandum to the draft statutory instrument says that the Government are considering changes to address the concerns about sustainable feedstock production. How will the Department for Transport go about assessing such sustainable production? I take the example of palm oil, which may indeed affect the feedstock to plants making soap. Palm oil, soya bean oil and rapeseed oil are the chosen feedstocks for biodiesel. I interpolate here that the prospects for biodiesel in the UK market are much more promising than the prospects for bioethanol. Palm oil raises controversial and complex issues, however, as do so many other things about the obligation. To what extent will other departments than the Department for Transport be involved in assessing sustainable feedstock production? Indeed, will there be a definition of sustainability that can be debated and agreed? Finally, upon what sources of scientific research will the Government rely in what is at the moment a highly disputed area of both science and environmental studies?