§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) pursuant to the Answer of 15 October,Official Report, columns 581–2W, on energy efficiency, to the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Mr. Sayeed), if the legal advice obtained by the promoters of the Home Energy Conservation Bill regarding the legal force of a principal aim compared with a statutory duty was made available to her; what steps she took to determine the validity of the promoters' advice; and what her conclusions were about the validity of the advice; [77447]
(2) pursuant to her answer of 15 October, Official Report, columns 581–2W, to the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire, on energy efficiency, what advice was received about the duties that having a 30 per cent. improvement as a principal aim would place on local authorities; [77446]
(3) pursuant to her answer of 15 October, Official Report, columns 581–2W, to the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire, whether the advice that she received on the implications of having a 30 per cent. improvement in domestic energy efficiency as a principal aim of the Home Energy Conservation Bill suggested that progress towards such a principal aim could legally be made by (a) new regulation and (b) energy efficiency programmes funded by bodies other than the Government. [77440]
§ Mr. MeacherThe Government have seen the legal advice obtained by the promoters of this Bill. We sought our own advice on it, which did not reach the same conclusions. The Government does not comment on the details of its internal advice, but I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Mid 599W Bedfordshire (Mr. Sayeed) on 15th October, Official Report, columns 581–2W, which sets out some of the issues which the Government considered.