Lord Whitehead (Lab)

I thank the noble Lord for that clarifying intervention. Essentially—forgive me for putting it quite like this—both of us are more or less right: the charter is there and has been there for a little while. But obviously, once a charter is up on the noticeboard, as it were, there are details of its implementation still before us. One of them is that question of the detail—not the principle—of trade union involvement in the offshore wind industry as a whole, and the requirement that from AR8, the companies involved in bidding sign up to that fair work charter overall. One important thing to say is that the whole process of the fair work charter has been tripartite throughout, with government, industry and unions all involved in setting up the charter itself and its consequences. It is not that anyone is going to impose anything on anybody; it will be a question of continuing tripartite involvement and interest in the detail of the fair work charter, as well as the charter itself. While I take the noble Lord’s point that in an absolutely ideal world it would have been a good idea if the sub-details of the fair work charter itself had all been worked through, in the real world it is very seldom possible to do that when something comes into place. I think he will appreciate that trying to get this in place so that it runs for AR8 and onwards, for example, is an important process of pace. Therefore, having the principle in place, with everyone clear what they are supposed to sign up to for AR8, is an important move in its own right.