Clause 17 - General consideration of licence applications
Water Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Mr Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
It may be that I am asking my hon. Friend a question that is properly for the Minister, who may also pick up the point when he replies. When reading my hon. Friend's amendment, I was slightly confused about who ''the Authority'' would be in the circumstances. I looked at the clause and how it would be consolidated into the Water Resources Act 1991 and it reads curiously. It ends up saying ''the Authority'' throughout what would be section 38, whereas in previous clauses we have discussed ''the Agency''. Who is ''the Authority'' in this instance—presumably the Environment Agency? The words ''the Authority'' actually refer to the National Rivers Authority, whose powers have been assumed by the Environment Agency. If that is the case, why, where on each occasion the legislation previously said the National Rivers Authority, have we gone to the trouble of inserting the words ''the Agency''? Clearly it does not mean the Water Services Regulatory Authority, which appears later in the legislation. It does not mean ''the appropriate authority'' as in clause 5(12), which we considered earlier. In this instance, it must mean the Environment Agency, so why not say ''the Agency''?