Clause 26 - Borrowing by the nda
Energy Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm

Mr Norman Baker (Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Lewes, Liberal Democrat)

The clause relates to borrowing by the NDA and it states the circumstances in which the NDA may borrow from the Secretary of State. Will the Minister explain how that information is made public and how it is conveyed to the House of Commons?

Mr Stephen Timms (Minister of State (e-Commerce & Competitiveness), Department of Trade and Industry; East Ham, Labour)

The arrangements are not unusual for an executive non-departmental public body. The NDA will be funded entirely by grant payments by the Secretary of State, but there may be circumstances, as the hon. Gentleman said, in which it makes good operational sense for the NDA to borrow money to optimise its contractual arrangements for delivering clean-up. The clause allows the NDA to borrow conventionally from the Secretary of State or, with her agreement, from other sources.

The borrowing will be communicated to those who take an interest in such matters through the published NDA annual reports and plans. I hope that the hon. Gentleman feels that that will give him and others the information in which they will be interested.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 26 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 27 ordered to stand part of the Bill.