Merchant Shipping Pollution Bill [HL]

Having tabled many amendments to lots of Bills in various areas of work, I believe that most of our amendments are as the noble Lord says. As the Opposition, that is how we try to get information from government. Our last amendment is more serious in content but most of the earlier ones are an attempt to get information from the Government. As I said, we support the Bill, but we wish to learn more during this process about how the Government will implement it. Later they will have to persuade others. At Second Reading we asked whether we could simply amend the existing system. We were told that that was not possible, so a new system is being set up. As the Opposition, it is our job to try to clarify the Government’s position. Most of our amendments are probing in nature rather than an attempt to defeat the Government.