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Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill

I am aware of the time and of the fact that the Minister's Parliamentary Private Secretary has been sitting behind him patiently waiting to introduce his Bill. I suspect that he had no option but to be patient this morning, and I shall therefore be brief. The debate has been interesting and worth while, with contributions of high quality. Three themes emerged: empowerment and ownership, about which so many hon. Members spoke; the need to engage with people, and the Government's acceptance of the need to move on to enable people to engage with the agenda. We also heard about energy security. All sorts of good things have come together. I started by saying that the Bill was modest, but hon. Members' generosity has persuaded me that I might have been excessively modest in my description. The measure is capable of moving significantly towards the greener, safer way of producing energy that we all support. I am delighted to see clear evidence of growing cross-party consensus about the sort of measures that we need to take if we are to modernise our energy systems properly and make them fit for purpose in the 21st century. I am extremely grateful to all those who took part in the debate. I listened to the Minister with great care. He made it clear that he and I have had conversations about the Bill and his comments today coincided entirely with my understanding of where those conversations would lead. I look forward to continuing to work with him positively to ensure that the "guts", as he put it, of the Bill end up on the statute book as soon as possible. That is what industry needs and the public expect. Question put and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time.