Energy Bill

My Lords, I very much oppose the amendment, which seems unnecessary. A great deal of advice is available and it is not necessary to have yet another committee. A committee has been proposed with a different role, which seems to me to have a much more sensible and wider view. That was in an earlier amendment—which has been withdrawn but which I have no doubt will come back—proposed by the former chairman of Shell UK, the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh. That seems to be a much better proposal than this one. It is not necessary to shove this in at this point. The Secretary of State will have at his behest a whole range of people on whose advice he can rely. This gives him permission to do that, and although I am all in favour of giving him that permission, I do not want him to have yet another committee. I think that this is the wrong way to do it and I very much hope that my noble friend will resist the amendment. I rather suspect that she will, and it is always a pleasure to end such an afternoon, now almost evening, by entirely supporting my noble friend.