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Energy Bill

Before my noble friend does so, perhaps I may ask the Minister one question. He indicated that he thinks that the exclusion from eligibility for a licence of someone who has previously been guilty of an offence could be covered by the regulations made under Clause 5(a), which states that the Secretary of State may by regulations, "““prescribe the persons, or classes of persons, by whom an application for a licence may be made””." As I understood the noble Lord, he said that the regulations could specify as a class those who had previously been guilty of certain offences. I question whether that would be an appropriate use of that regulation-making power. It could be open to challenge on the grounds that that was not what the legislation had in mind. When legislators talk about classes of persons, they are not thinking of particular people who may have offended the law in another respect. I am not a lawyer—at least it is a very long time since I was involved in the law, and I do not claim any expertise—but I hope the Minister might be prepared to get his lawyers to look at this again and satisfy themselves that Clause 5(a) could legally be used to make a regulation that would exclude the kind of people that my noble friend's amendment addresses. I wonder whether that would be a viable use of that regulation-making power.