Planning Bill
1:45 pm
Neil Sinden: We are very interested to see what Parliament decides on the remit and the role of Select Committees in examining draft national policy statements. We believe that Select Committee investigations into draft statements could very usefully identify no-go areas in terms of a degree of site-specificity that would be unjustified for a draft national policy statement. A Select Committee investigation could highlight areas where the commission, or any decision-making body that we may see given responsibility for decisions on these schemes, might test and cross-examine particular pieces of evidence at the inquiry level. We would also want the Select Committee to consider very carefully the extent to which the Government have adequately appraised draft national policy statements from the point of view of sustainable development. It is important that that process is transparent and can be tested, probed and judged by Select Committees looking at draft national policy statements.