Clause 6 - RSS: Secretary of State's functions
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
6:00 pm
Mr Matthew Green (Ludlow, Liberal Democrat)
Normal business will now resume; there is just over an hour to go.
By leaving out subsections (3) and (4) and inserting a new subsection (3), amendment No. 137 is designed to ensure that an examination in public is held on any draft revision of the regional spatial strategy—yes, we are back to RSSs. Section 35B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires county councils
to hold a public examination of an alteration to a structure plan. The same requirement should apply to a regional planning body altering its regional spatial strategy.
In deciding whether a public examination is to be held, subsection 4(c) requires the Secretary of State to have regard to the
''level of interest shown in the draft''.
I am unsure what that would mean. Would it be the number of letters of objection, the number of people attending local consultative meetings or the amount of column inches in local newspapers? It is unclear what the ''level of interest'' is. It was a major topic of discussion when I worked on the Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill just under a year ago. Those discussions went on for weeks, but I do not want us to go on for weeks, and we clearly cannot. I would be grateful if the Minister provided clarification.
Amendment No. 136 is broadly along the same lines in that it seeks to ensure a public examination. It is designed to improve public confidence in strategic planning, which is arguably the most critical level of planning for major infrastructure developments. It would also ensure that the draft was subject to effective scrutiny. That is done by removing the ''may'' and inserting ''must'', so that the examination would have to be held in public. Again, if the Minister is minded to refuse the amendments, as Ministers often are, an explanation of the likely reasons why an examination would be held in public or, more importantly, why the Secretary of State might not want to hold one in public, would be very useful.
Amendment No. 138 would leave out subsection (4). That would take away the Secretary of State's power to decide whether an examination in public would be held in respect of the draft revision of the regional spatial strategy. Essentially, that is in line with previous amendments. If there must be an examination in public, this is the corollary amendment, which removes the Secretary of State's powers to decide which examination that is.
Amendment No. 139 would delete line 22, which is a separate way of trying to deal with the matter. If the Minister accepts amendment No. 138, amendment No. 139 will be superfluous, but I suspect that he probably will not, so I am giving him another chance. Amendment No. 139 would delete the caveat whereby the Secretary of State, when deciding whether an examination in public is to be held, must have regard to
''such other matters as he thinks appropriate.''
That is a fairly overarching power for the Secretary of State. He can clearly think that virtually any matter is appropriate or not, so that gives him carte blanche to decide whether there should be an examination in public. Essentially, he could remove paragraphs (a) to (c) because he thought that many factors were more important than his regard for those paragraphs. Effectively, paragraph (d) is a catch-all to allow the Secretary of State to make whichever decision he wishes, regardless of the position in paragraphs (a)
to (c). If the Minister is not minded to accept amendment No. 139, he might at least explain what some of those matters are that the Secretary of State might think appropriate—just for clarification.
Amendment No. 75 is a clarificatory Government amendment, which we are happy to support.