Energy Bill
10:30 am
Joan Humble (Blackpool North and Fleetwood, Labour)
Before we begin, I have a few preliminary announcements. Members may, if they wish, remove their jackets during Committee meetings. They must turn off, or switch to silent mode, all pagers and mobile phones. There is both a money resolution and a Ways and Means resolution in connection with this Bill. Copies are available in the room. I should like to remind members that adequate notice should be given of amendments. As a general rule, I do not intend to call starred amendments.
Furthermore, this Bill is one of three this Session that has been selected for a further experiment with explanatory statements on amendments. All members of the Committee have been sent a leaflet giving details of the experiment. Copies of the leaflet are available in the Committee room and in the Public Bill Office. Members may also wish to seek advice from the Clerk of the Committee.
As we are still in the early days of taking oral evidence in Public Bill Committees, it might help if I briefly explain what is proposed, so that we can all be clear. The Committee will first be asked to consider the programme motion on the amendment paper, for which debate is limited to half an hour. We will then proceed to a motion to report written evidence, and then a motion—which I hope we can take formally— to permit the Committee to deliberate in private in advance of the oral evidence sessions.
Assuming that the second of these motions is agreed to, the Committee will then move into a brief private session. Once the Committee has deliberated, the witnesses and members of the public will be invited back into the room and our oral evidence session will commence. If the Committee agrees to the programme motion, it will hear oral evidence today and on the morning of Tuesday 19 February, before reverting on Thursday 21 February to the more familiar proceedings of clause-by-clause scrutiny.