Clause8
Commons Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Jim Knight (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)
I am grateful to the hon. Member for South-EastCambridgeshire for allowing me to catch up. I think that it would behelpful if I explained a little bit about how the clause works; itdeals with the apportionment of rights of common and enablesregulations to be made to deal with the circumstances and the way inwhich the apportionment may beregistered.
Apportionment,for those who are not familiar with the term, is used to describe whathappens to land to which rights of common are attached—a dominant tenement—when it is divided into two or more parcels in separateownership. For example, that may occur when the owner sells only partof his farm holding and retains the remainder. Traditionally, where aland holding is divided between separate new owners, the rights ofcommon attached to that land must be divided between the new owners inproportion to their share of the land, as we have heard in relation tosheep.
I say to thehon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire that there is an alternative.It is set out in clause 11, which, as we will perhaps discuss, enablesa right of common attached to a dominant tenement to be concentrated onpart of the dominant tenement, where another part is to be developedfor non-agricultural use. I hope that that satisfieshim.
Clause 8 providesthat regulations may enable the registration of apportionment, butsubsection (2) implies, as is our intention, that regulations will notrequire apportionment to be registered, as we discussed in respect ofan earlierclause.
Somestakeholders have asked why we do not ensure the mandatory registrationof apportionment. The answer is a little complex, but to summarise:first, we do not think it possible to require apportionment to beregistered, because there is no sensible sanction that could be appliedin default, nor any likelihood of its enforcement; and secondly, thecommons registers will not show who owns and occupies the land to whicha right is attached. There is little point seeking to registerapportionment, because there will be nothing to change in the registerin consequence of it. The reality is as the hon. Member for Brecon andRadnorshire described it during the debate on clause 3 in respect ofthe Land Registry. We have undertaken to explore whether regulationsunder clause 4 can enable commoners to make a declaration ofentitlement to exercise rights of common that would be includedin the register as additionalinformation.