Member

The Energy Prices Act 2022 is the vehicle. However, as noble Lords will spot, that piece of legislation was quite rightly heavily sunsetted at the time. Therefore, in order to make it appropriate both for Great British purposes and now for Northern Ireland purposes, it is necessary to amend those sunset clauses. I appreciate what the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, says about the fact that that sunset had already lapsed at the point at which this was applied to Northern Ireland. That was purely a question of getting the arrangements for Northern Ireland sorted out, which could have been done a little earlier but was not possible in terms of the general use of this Bill for the purposes of the Great British arrangements and subsequently for Northern Ireland. Of course, the changes here were as a result of a request from the Northern Ireland Executive to extend the provisions to Northern Ireland, and this was the best way to do it quickly and efficiently. In that context, I very much welcome the support of the noble Lord, Lord Bew, with a clear understanding that that is what we are trying to do, as he welcomed that under these purposes.