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Fuel Poverty Bill

I think that the Bill does identify fuel-poor households. I certainly do not quibble with the definition in clause 13(d), as I said earlier; it is a perfectly acceptable definition. The problem is that the numbers change daily, partly because of the Government's initiatives, but also because of all the other factors. There are subjective factors affecting individual households over which the Government simply do not have control. Of course, the Government have some control over macro-economic policy, but not over whether an individual loses their job. They may have overall control over energy policy, but not over the day-to-day spot market prices that companies pay for gas. They cannot possibly have control over those things, so the target is moveable, which is why it becomes so difficult to have an absolute duty. If we were talking about a duty to achieve the target "so far as is reasonably practicable"—that is the duty that we currently have—or "so far as is practicable", that would be a realistic way of approaching the matter.