Clause 1 - Regional Spatial Strategy
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
2:32 pm
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
I welcome you formally to the Chair, Mr. Pike, although I did welcome you in your absence this morning. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship and we shall do our best to cause you the least possible trouble.
When this morning's sitting was adjourned, I was moving amendment No. 47 and arguing that the words ''however expressed'' are unnecessary—they are overly precise and fussy and they leave a great deal to interpretation. What does ''however expressed'' mean? I should have thought that we had perfectly adequate procedures whereby that the Secretary of State can give a direction in writing in the normal way. The words are therefore otiose; they can mean anything to anybody. Without those words, subsection (2) is completely objective and factual. To insert them is to make the subsection subjective.
Do the words ''however expressed'' mean that the Secretary of State's policies can be sent by e-mail? The Government are keen on e-government, so I assume that they do mean that. Do the words mean that policies can be sent through a speech that the Secretary of State might make—if he says it in a speech, it is a direction—or do they refer to a more old-fashioned way of delivery, such as carrier pigeon? Had we proposed an amendment putting the words into the Bill, the Minister would strongly have urged his hon. Friends to reject it because it was unnecessary and added confusion.
This simple amendment would give the Bill much greater clarity, and make the statement of the Secretary of State completely objective, rather than subjective as it would be under the Bill as drafted. If the Minister accepts the amendment, we can move on quickly.