---

Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have just counted up the votes. I think it is eight or nine to one: or perhaps nine to zero, to be honest. As my noble friend Lord Whitty said—I realise that the Annunciator was not quite right when we came to the debate—the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, referred to moving the amendment and to the unsatisfactory nature of the way our first two debates were held at almost 11 o’clock on the first night. The general consensus was that it was not known that we had to stop at a certain time. I think it was a Wednesday evening, and the House does not sit after 11 pm on a Wednesday because of the early start on Thursday. The debate on Report, too, was held late in the day. This debate has not suffered the fate of the daylight hours debate, which started late on both nights and has not come back today. I take what the noble Baroness said about bringing this back at Third Reading, but it is not for me to pronounce on the rules of this place. It is on the Order Paper and therefore up for debate. It gives me an opportunity to set out the Government’s position. First, as I have said before, we are not starting with a blank sheet. Many United Kingdom companies, such as the 1,000 companies in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, are already required to disclose their emissions.