Commentary on Sections Functions of the Committee Section 37: Response to Committee’s reports on progress
192.This section places a duty on the Secretary of State to lay before Parliament a response to the points raised by each of the Committee on Climate Change’s annual progress reports.
193.Subsection (2) requires the Secretary of State to consult the devolved administrations on a draft of the response. Subsection (3) provides that the response to the Committee’s first report must be laid no later than 15th January 2010. Subsection (4) provides that each subsequent report must be laid by 15th October in the year the Committee’s report was made.
194.Subsections (5) and (6) allow the Secretary of State to change the deadline by negative resolution order. This provision is to allow flexibility (it might, for example, be used to allow for the consequences of future international treaties on climate change necessitating a change to the date when the Committee makes its report).
195.This section will also require the Secretary of State to respond to any points raised by the Committee in its progress reports under section 59 in relation to progress made in implementing the adaptation programmes under section 58. See the notes on section 59 on the timing of those reports. Also of relevance is section 82, which repeals a reporting requirement under section 2(a) of the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 (c.19).