Clause 25 - Expenditure and receipts of NDA
Energy Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Mr Norman Baker (Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
I support the amendment, which is apposite and important. We are talking about large sums of public money and about a situation in which there is some doubt, at least initially and until the matters have settled down, about how the NDA is using its money, how accountable that is and what procedures are in place. We discussed the matter earlier, so I will not repeat those points. As the hon.
Gentleman rightly said, it would be quite wrong to hand out billions of pounds of public money without some say-so from the House of Commons.
There is also the unsatisfactory situation in which there is a dispute—let us put it no stronger than that—about state aid. We have heard about a legal challenge in Europe to the Bill and on that basis it would be very important, especially at the present time, to subject such monies to proper discussion in the way that the hon. Gentleman suggested.