Clause 5
Planning Bill
9:00 am
Jacqui Lait (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Beckenham, Conservative)
I am glad that Mr. Illsley alerted you to the difficulties that we had, Sir John. I will now continue on the issue of national policy statements.
I hope that this will not stop us from having a clause stand part debate, but it is worth putting it on the record that in principle, we believe that national policy statements are a good thing. However, there are serious questions about many parts of the Government proposals.
This first group of amendments is not the most important group, but we think that it is important that we do not see national policy statements emerging in areas other than the five listed in clause 13(5). That is why the amendment would replace the conditional “may” with “must”, with regard to the Secretary of State issuing national policy statements. Amendment No. 5 would bring the list from clause 13(5) into clause 5 to ensure that national policy statements cover only those five areas. Amendment No. 6 is, in effect, another way of ensuring that amendments Nos. 4 and 5 are dealt with. In that way, we could say that it is a supernumerary amendment. If the Government are not prepared to accept amendments Nos. 4 and 5, they could instead accept amendment No. 6.
There has been a big debate in the evidence that we heard and among lobby groups about whether the policy statements should be focused tightly. In the evidence sessions last week we had a brief debate about whether there should be an environmental policy statement. We understand why that suggestion was put forward, but I think that it is important that every policy statement includes environmental considerations, so it is unnecessary to have a separate one. However, there is a demand for one. The Minister is looking either very interested or wishes to intervene.