Martin Horwood (Cheltenham, Liberal Democrat)

My thanks to you, Miss Begg, for presiding over this Bill Committee. If all Public Bill Committees were as complete in their consideration of amendments and were as quick as this, we should all be very much happier. Perhaps we should recommend it to Mr Speaker Bercow. The Government’s amendments have, clearly, made many technical improvements to the Bill and it is right to thank the Minister for her support of it, in principle, and to thank her and her team for the obvious hard work that has gone into those amendments.

It may be a slightly more wishy-washy shade of green than the original Bill from the hon. Member for East Surrey—I repeat my congratulations to him for bringing  his Bill this far—but it is obviously a welcome step in the right direction, and it is encouraging that all parties have agreed to support this new legislation. We wish it well in its next stage.

Joan Ruddock (Minister of State, Department for Energy and Climate Change; Lewisham, Deptford, Labour)

I cannot possibly agree that this is a less green Bill than it was when it started. We intended to work with the hon. Member for East Surrey to improve the Bill, to get it into a state where it is more accurate, wider and deeper. We ran into some confusion early on, and I will seek to make sure that that is clarified and that we are able to proceed from here to the next stage of debate. Let me again congratulate the hon. Gentleman and thank everybody concerned with the Bill. I recognise that this is a Committee made up of people who take these issues very seriously and work on  them a great deal. I have to say that, with some exceptions, we often find consensus and I am pleased that it has happened today.

Peter Ainsworth (East Surrey, Conservative)

And finally, Miss Begg, my thanks to all hon. Members who have taken part in this Committee and especially to you.

Anne Begg (Aberdeen South, Labour)

And my thanks go to the Committee. I have enjoyed it. It has been my first private Member’s Bill.