New Clause 5
Commons Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
James Paice (Shadow Minister (Agriculture & Rural Affairs), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
This is a straightforward new clause, but the Minister probably will not be able to accept it as drafted as it may be deficient. It was suggested by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, among others, because of concern that professional advice to the national authority is needed on how it should go about doing things.
I do not wish to destroy the harmonious mood of the Committee in the past two days, but there have been times when some Opposition members of the Committee have felt that there was insufficient practical understanding of the implications of what was being discussed. Without rehearsing those matters, it is important that the Government, or the Welsh Assembly in the case of Wales, have the necessary advice on the practicalities and implications of the proposal.
We discussed earlier matters such as minimal and trivial works, which are all relevant to the Bill, and wider management issues such as what works should, or should not, be approved. On Tuesday, the Minister touched upon the body that he is setting up to bring together the registration officers and advise and help them in their functions under the Bill. That may be linked to my proposal, the principal purpose of which is to invite the Minister to explain how he sees the national authority moving forward. I hope that he will give us some more information about setting up the organisation for land registration officers and say where he will get practical advice to help him to fulfil the significant amount of responsibility that he, or the Department and his successors, will assume under the Bill. I stress the word “practical”, because I say specifically in the amendment that the national authority should be representative of commoners as well as those with a public interest in the land. The Government should use the real interests and the wealth of experience and knowledge of people who have held commons rights and applied them and used them for grazing—or indeed used any of the other rights that we have discussed—in applying their responsibilities under the Bill.