My second Intervention on the Energy Bill
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. Did he notice that the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) would not give way? She was arguing—the typical position of her party—that it knew all the answers before the consultation, yet it still wanted a very long, drawn-out consultation to avoid doing the answers.
Andrew Bowie, (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Nuclear and Networks):
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. I also noticed that—
We cannot respond to a consultation that has not been launched yet. We are in the process right now of working with the community energy contact group. In fact, it has already met. Work is under way right now to develop the consultation, identify what the barriers to market are, and get out there and support the community energy sector, as the Government are determined to do.
Lib Dem’s specialise in expensive consultations which they then ignore if they do not agree with the public views sent in. Hobhouse said they knew the answers so why propose a consultation? Why would we trust them to accept the replies when they have made up their minds?