Planning Bill
3:15 pm
Clive Betts (Sheffield, Attercliffe, Labour)
We will have further discussion in due course about whether clause 166(4)(b) allows for that possibility. I think that that would be quite concerning, and that it is worrying some of the stakeholders in the process, but we will probably come back to that.
In terms of the role of Parliament, I accept the Minister’s line that in the end it is up to Parliament to determine its own procedures for how it will give consideration to national policy statements, but surely we ought to have laid down in the Bill that there will be a right for Parliament to scrutinise the draft statements and eventually to approve them?
I am told that, irrespective of which particular procedure Parliament eventually adopts to do that, its right to do so is not dissimilar from orders under the Regulatory Reform Act 2006 or the Human Rights Act 1998. In both those Acts, it is laid down that Ministers must propose a draft order for Committee scrutiny and then lay an order for approval. Are we not asking for something very similar for national policy statements: giving Parliament the right to scrutinise and then to approve?