New Clause 29 - Strategic environmental assessment
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
11:00 am
Mr Keith Hill (Minister of State (Housing and Planning), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Streatham, Labour)
I, too, shall attempt to be brief in my reply. We do not need the new clause or the amendments because under the terms of the Bill, local development documents and revisions of regional spatial strategies will be subject to European directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment, which is known as the strategic environmental assessment, or SEA, directive. The consultation has now been completed and guidance for planning authorities on the SEA directive will be published next week. Draft regulations will appear in December. It seems to me that that was what the hon. Gentleman was seeking to tease out. I hope that I have given him the answer, and with that I can sit down and invite him to withdraw the new clause.