My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, has eloquently outlined Amendment 7 and Clause 12 to the Grand Committee. I want to ask the Minister—the noble Baroness, Lady Scott—a few questions about the wider committees.
We on these Benches welcome the establishment of the three committees: the building advisory committee, the committee on industry competence and the residents’ panel committee. It is important to ask what the work of these committees is and how will it be funded. This is quite a broad question, so the Minister may wish to come back to me at some stage. Could she also provide details of how the committees will be staffed? How will the Government ensure that this committee will be independent from government?
The noble Lord, Lord Stunell, outlined the concerns. We on these Benches also emphasise that Amendment 7 is very simple—it would basically just add an extra line to be consistent with Clauses 10 and 11 relating to the other two committees. I am sure that the Minister could add those words regarding the building advisory committee.
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The noble Lord, Lord Stunell, made a pertinent point about the Building Regulations Advisory Committee—BRAC. It is a statutory committee and the Minister needs to reflect on that. The idea that the Secretary of State could just change the new committee, amend its regulations and abolish it does not make sense. This is a very important point. Tonight we have had a lot of sympathy and no movement; on this, I would rather have less sympathy and more movement to get this addressed.