New Clause 5
Commons Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Jim Knight (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman, as ever, is acting from the best intentions in wanting to ensure that the national authority acts on the best advice. However, it is not necessary to include that power in the Bill, as the national authority already has the power to establish a non-statutory advisory body, if it were felt to be appropriate.
We intend to establish a national stakeholder group to provide advice on the implementation of the Bill—but to do so on a statutory basis would introduce an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and impose additional costs. In section 101 of the NERC Act 2006, we repealed no fewer than five committees established under various enactments, which had become redundant. We have rehearsed the arguments about this Bill being an opportunity that comes round rarely and wanting it to stand the test of time.
There will be a separate organisation from the national stakeholder group—the Association of Commons Registration Officers—which we have already started and funded for set-up costs. We also want to ensure that we use advice from other bodies that currently exist, such as the Welsh Commons Forum and the federations of commoners in Cumbria and Yorkshire. The Federation of Cumbria Commoners, with assistance from a rural enterprise scheme grant, has recently issued a series of good practice guides for commons, which we thoroughly welcome. We want to make sure that we are using such advice beyond the national stakeholder group.