Energy Bill

My Lords, I have great sympathy with what my noble friend has said. The noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, drew attention to the fact that we see in DECC no institutional memory. We should put alongside that the fact that Ministers rotate regularly. There needs to be somebody or some organisation in the middle that is the honest broker. When I was the Energy Minister, I had a panel of experts which was hugely valuable to me. It involved people such as Dieter Helm and had real gravitas. It was really useful to be able to bounce ideas off people, but this proposal takes it to another level. My noble friend said that people in the very enclosed world of energy policy have often had opportunities to work in the big six or for some of the significant players in the field. It is useful to know who is taking these decisions. To the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, I would say that sometimes you have to spend a penny to save a penny. If you spend your money on getting people who can stop you making mistakes, you will avoid spending not just millions but perhaps billions of pounds making mistakes just for the sake of a few ha’pennies to ensure that you have proper advice. My goodness, government spends enough on consultants. Why not put some of that money to good use getting some expert advice?