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Energy Bill

moved, as an amendment to Amendment No. 29, Amendment No. 30: 30: After Clause 40, line 3, leave out ““may”” and insert ““shall”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I thank the Minister for moving Amendment No. 29. Despite the late stage in the proceedings, it is nice to see persuasion and reasoned argument win the day, rather than sheer force of numbers. The government amendment allows for the implementation of a feed-in tariff for electricity, which we asked for and was promised by the Minister at Report, so we welcome it. Of course such an important amendment cannot be expected to be added to the Bill without some level of scrutiny, and with the support of many noble Lords around the House I have tabled several amendments in order to explore the Government’s intentions a little further. One of the great disadvantages of tabling complicated amendments at this stage in the Bill is the difficulty of discussing in detail the provisions they contain. My amendments will, I hope, provide the Minister with the opportunity to expand on his opening remarks. My first amendments, and those of the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, deal with the implementation of the feed-in tariff. They replace the word ““may”” with ““shall”” and so would insert a duty on, not a power for, the Secretary of State to implement the tariff. Of all the amendments tabled to Amendment No. 29, this is probably the most important. No doubt many of your Lordships have received strong lobbying from outside groups who are concerned that, despite the encouraging words from the Minister and his colleague the Secretary of State, there are many within his party and the Government who are not as convinced as the support for these amendments has forced them to sound. I hope the Minister will be able to give a categorical guarantee that the tariff will be implemented as soon as possible and give us a clear timetable for the steps necessary to reach the rollout point. I beg to move.