Clause 13
Planning Bill
11:15 am
Jim Fitzpatrick (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Poplar and Canning Town, Labour)
On behalf of the whole Committee, I am grateful that the hon. Lady has shared the good news of the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East with us. I cannot imagine that anyone in the room would not rather be supping champagne with him now than working in Committee. [Interruption.] Sorry, Mr. Illsley, I got that the wrong way around. Having said that, I am sure that the hon. Lady will convey to the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East all our very best wishes.
By asking me whether I can assure her that there will not be any constitutional dispute between London and Edinburgh, the hon. Lady again tempts me to engage in crystal ball-gazing. I am grateful that she said that the Scottish oil question had not passed me by in the past 30 years, which demonstrates a generosity of spirit for which she is famous. I know that it is a bit of a mantra, or it certainly will appear to be by the end of parts 3 and 4, but we are not doing anything to unsettle the devolution arrangements as they apply at the moment. In this instance, that is why there is a distinction between England, Wales and Scotland.
The hon. Lady’s substantive point was about the evidence given by the UK Major Ports Group and Associated British Ports. Both are organisations for which we have high regard, and we listened carefully to what they had to say about the thresholds. However, the analysis and modelling done by the Department for Transport indicate that we have set the appropriate thresholds. Were such important organisations to come forward with more hard evidence, we would never refuse to listen to them. We are confident, however, that the assessments that we have made and the thresholds that we have set are appropriate, so I would not want to give the hon. Lady false hope that we are likely to change them. I have discussed the matter with officials outside the Committee to ensure that we have double-checked our figures. We are confident that they are absolutely accurate.