Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:45 pm on 27 October 2008.
My Lords, I am also grateful for that, although the Minister refers me back to a document that I have already been looking at. Something like a Turner-commission view of that technical document would be much more useful to me as a policy-maker. Of course the Government produce raw technical data, but having an oversight on a long-term basis by people who have a lot of experience in the field, as all three of the Turner commissioners had, adds value in a way that such a commission would but which the raw data that the Minister has adverted to just do not supply.
I am a simple seeker after the truth. We do not have the information we need to do the job properly, and the amendment would be a way of guaranteeing that all we had was the facts. If that destabilises anything, then that is seriously sad. If people are upset by others being required or commissioned to think about these things carefully and put information into the public domain, then I am sorry, but as a parliamentarian I cannot do the job that is asked of me unless I get the kind of information that at the moment is absent. The amendment is a way of putting that information into the public domain in a way that could be trusted and would help in the long term in an important area of public policy. I would like to test the opinion of the House.