Clause 2
Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill
12:30 pm
Simon Burns (Whip, Whips; West Chelmsford, Conservative)
I assure Members that I do not intend to detain the Committee. I am a simple seeker of information. The Minister kindly answered a question during the clause 1 stand part debate. However, I thought he was a little churlish in his comments. I have been attending very diligently to my duties as a Whip and I did listen to him early on in the debate, but I wanted to be absolutely certain about the definition of the Secretary of State so that I did not get this part of my contribution wrong.
There is something that puzzles me, which I hope the Minister will be able to explain. The clause extends the Bill to the whole of the United Kingdom. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that the Bill will apply to Scotland as well as Northern Ireland, England and Wales. I assume that the answer is yes, given the explanatory note. That puzzles me and leads me to my main question.
On the assumption that the Bill extends to Scotland, why is it that the Bill, if one looks at the front page, has been presented to Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, all the other Ministers in the Treasury team, the Secretary of State for Wales, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government but not the Secretary of State for Scotland. It seems an odd omission that the Scottish Secretary has not been included on a piece of legislation dealing with Scotland.