Member

The key point is that the environmental protections are in place. Noble Lords may say that they need to be improved—and the Government will listen to that—but, equally, I think many of us agree that the current planning system needs reform and that we need to speed up approvals where appropriate. I am not going to fall for the question from the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton; all I can say about what was in the newspapers this morning is that it was purely media speculation. However, lying behind it is the aim of the Government, which will have to be cross-departmental, to reform and speed up the planning system, and potentially to deal with the bat issue. But it must be done while ensuring that we maintain our environmental protections. It is on those protections that we should depend, not on giving Great British Energy a duty that it is not right for it to discharge.