Clause 7 - RSS: examination in public
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
6:30 pm
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
I entirely follow the hon. Gentleman. Amendment No. 140 was more or less dealt with in the previous discussion, but amendment No. 141 deserves a little more discussion, particularly in view of the inconsistency of the approach taken by the Minister on the new clause in my name, my proposals for an independent inquiry into local plan documents and the proposals for an independent inquiry relating to the RSS.
Clause 7(3) states:
''No person has a right to be heard at an examination in public.''
Had I spotted that earlier, I would certainly have tabled an amendment to delete it or considerably amend it, because it is totally contrary to everything that the Minister has said in Committee. I hope that he will say that if an amendment to that subsection were tabled on Report, he would be minded to accept it. That said, amendment No. 141, to which the hon. Member for Ludlow spoke , is entirely reasonable. In local plans and the RSS, the person who has the say as to who can appear before the inquiry must be the independent inspector.
Unless we have a statement from the Minister, there will almost certainly be a challenge, again under article 6 in respect of the Human Rights Act, which I have quoted to the Committee previously. That makes it clear that every person has a right to appear at an independent inquiry or tribunal. Clause 7(3) must be completely contrary to it. I wonder how the Minister or his boss, the Deputy Prime Minister, will be able to sign the certificate saying that the Bill is human rights compliant, because every Bill that goes through this place must have such a certificate. I think that there will be great difficulty with that while clause 7(3) remains in place, but I await with interest what the Minister has to say.