Clause 52 - Enforcement of certain provisions
Water Bill [Lords]
11:00 am

Mr Bill Wiggin (Leominster, Conservative)

I beg to move amendment No. 87, in

clause 52, page 66, line 40, leave out subsection (3).

Bearing in mind the Minister's comments about a Bill the size of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, I have to say that the Government did their best with this 232-page special. However, having gone through it with a fine-tooth comb—as we all did, of course—I could not help but be curious about why the Government should want to reduce ''twenty-eight''

to ''twenty-one''. The purpose of this probing amendment is to find out why they chose to do that.

Mr Elliot Morley (Minister of State (Environment and Agri-Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Scunthorpe, Labour)

There is a fairly simple explanation, although there has been some confusion about the matter. A period of 21 days would bring the Bill in line with the provisions for other utilities and make legislation consistent.

Mr Bill Wiggin (Leominster, Conservative)

I suspected that. That is a shame, because the clause deals with the enforcement of certain provisions, and 28 days seems more reasonable. However, as this Bill by its nature tidies up other legislation, there is a limit to our ability to alter the wording—not that I wish to stand in the way of that. Therefore, I am again grateful to the Minister for his reply and beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause 52 ordered to stand part of the Bill.