Clause 53
Energy Bill
5:45 pm
Charles Hendry (Shadow Minister, Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; Wealden, Conservative)
It is the person described in the Bill. The Bill has already referred to the person to whom the fine would apply. One assumes that it would be the person who has taken the decision and has been in a position of authority. That is one of the reasons for my earlier amendment. If someone might be considered as a worker within the facility where something had happened wrongly and could not be perceived to carry responsibility for those acts, that should be taken into account too.
The explanatory notes do not explain the level of the fine involved so perhaps the Minister could clarify that. Amendment No. 37 relates to the penalties for those who have supplied false information to the Secretary of State. It includes the term “false or misleading”. I fully understand why a person who has knowingly or recklessly supplied false information should be liable to punishment, but I am concerned about the term “misleading”. It is a very subjective term and could lead to people being convicted who have supplied information that is deemed misleading by the courts, when that was never their intention when they provided the information.