Schedule 5
Climate Change Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
David Maclean (Penrith and The Border, Conservative)
This Bill is a convenient vehicle for the garbage clauses to be tacked on to. I am not suggesting that they are out of order because the long title of the Bill permits their inclusion. It is not just a matter of tidiness, although I do like tidy legislation—and tidy everything, to be honest. The schedule is inappropriate because it could disillusion the public with regard to our main purpose. People in the pilot areas and in other areas will struggle to put the right sort of material in the right boxes on whatever day of the week the council deigns to turn up to collect that sort of recycling material. When they get it wrong and are given penalties, I am afraid that they will say, “Well, it’s all this climate change nonsense and saving the planet,” and they could become disillusioned about our main purposes. I will not labour the point; I want to get on to the technical details.