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Climate Change Bill [HL]

This amendment raises an important point. The effectiveness of the climate change committee will depend not only on its authority and expertise, about which we have heard very much, but on public confidence and trust in the committee, particularly the link between the advice provided by the independent committee and the action the Government take upon that advice. Openness and public engagement will be essential in building and maintaining that trust. However that is achieved by the committee, it is important that it makes its workings completely transparent. My own suggestion, based on my experience as chairman of the Food Standards Agency, would be for the committee to hold its meetings in public so that public engagement could be direct, with the public not only observing the deliberations and recommendations of the committee, but perhaps being able to ask questions at the end of, or during, committee meetings. This amendment raises a very important point about transparency and trust.