Environment Bill

Debate between Lord Mackay of Clashfern and Duke of Montrose

Report stage
Monday 6th September 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Duke of Montrose (Con)]

My Lords, in the midst of all this great technical expertise, I would like to follow up one point that the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, touched on, which is how all this will be achieved. This amendment asks that a further metric be added to those already in the Bill. The Secretary of State is tasked with setting targets for the annual mean level in ambient air, and an amazing combination of statistics will be needed to get that.

Clause 17 asks the Secretary of State to prepare a policy statement, but who is actually going to produce all these measures? The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, hinted at what local authorities could do, but is the Government’s policy to pile all these tasks on to local government? Who will be blamed if the measures are not produced? Are the Government considering what the financial demands are likely to be? The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, has given us some indication that they may be considerably more than is currently the case.

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con)]

My Lords, I think the later contributions have shown that it is vital, in this connection, for the Government to focus on changing the materials that produce this. It is one thing to say, for example, that we want to go to zero carbon by a certain date. Well, surely we should have that kind of system applied to the way this development arises. Nobody wants to kill people, yet there is a substantial amount of this trouble arising in our country, and the remedy must be focused on getting rid of the particulates as far as possible. That is a very high aim, which is not always made prominent in the literature and the policies.

Energy Bill

Debate between Lord Mackay of Clashfern and Duke of Montrose

Monday 4th November 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con)]

My Lords, as I read subsection (1) of Amendment 78B, it seems to distinguish between design and construction; and in subsection (2), cost-effectiveness seems to be required only in relation to construction and does not seem to apply directly to the design. That may be deliberate—I am not sure—but that needs some explanation.

[The Duke of Montrose (Con)]

My Lords, I should like to express my opinion and interest in Amendment 76A. It is clear from what it says that the ONR will have responsibility for protecting “persons” against risk of harm from ionising radiation. In fact, pretty well all the risks that one can think of are those that affect persons. Perhaps in slight contrast to my noble friend Lord Caithness, my worry would be that the Environment Agency will have a big role in the approval, design and putting in place of a nuclear power station but it is more likely that the Office for Nuclear Regulation will be the body that is watching what happens day by day as the plant is running. While one can state that someone has responsibility for the environment—which is a nice, all-embracing term that we might think would take care of everything—we need to consider what the threat to the environment might be. We do not expect nuclear power stations to blow up but a whole lot of my sheep were prevented from going to market because of the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl, and various neighbours of mine were required to put all their sheep through a nuclear scanner. One man actually tried to put his dog through it in order to show the possible dangers from radiation. However, there is the possibility of food supplies being affected. At Fukushima, the issue was marine pollution. I want to be sure that the Office for Nuclear Regulation will be aware of the ongoing operation of plants in order to protect those elements.