Energy: Draft Energy Bill

Lord Lawson of Blaby Excerpts

Wednesday 14th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I expected the noble Baroness to come back with a serious question and I am disappointed that she did not take this opportunity to further reach out to the work that we are doing. I will not comment on remarks made that I cannot attribute, so I will resist the noble Baroness’s call to comment on my honourable friend.

[Lord Lawson of Blaby]

My Lords, leaving aside all the green waffle, I welcome the inordinate delay in bringing forward the energy Bill, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, referred. Does my noble friend think it conceivable that this delay is connected with the fact that all the scrutiny that the draft Bill received—including from the group of which the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, and I were both members, but more importantly from all the leading energy experts in this country—showed the Bill to be a complete nonsense? Among other things, it would give the Secretary of State arbitrary powers without any parliamentary scrutiny, and it would raise energy costs both for business and consumers. Does my noble friend not agree that the only sensible thing is to go completely back to the drawing board and abandon the present form of the energy Bill?

[Baroness Verma]

Of course, my noble friend does not expect me to agree with anything that he has just said. We very much took on board the recommendations and comments made by noble Lords in the Committee led by the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, and also by the Energy and Climate Change Committee. However, the Bill will arrive. As with all Bills that need proper scrutiny, we will come to the House with a Bill date when it has reached the stages that it needs to reach.