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Climate Change Bill [HL]

Probably for the first time in the Committee’s discussions, I feel really disappointed by the Minister’s response. To some extent, I feel that he has missed the point. If I say that it is Civil Service-speak, I do not mean it in a derogatory sense. It is the Executive seeking to maintain discretion on these matters and not truly seeing the enormous importance of engaging public interest, through Parliament, in what the Government are seeking to do. A Government who cannot and do not wish to engage Parliament as an ally in this pursuit will fail. The Minister may suggest that no Government will seek to fail to engage Parliament in this great adventure. He has conceded that many significant measures are currently in force that require an annual debate. The Climate Change Bill—or Act, as it will become—is of such importance that public debate on an annual basis is necessary.