Clause 14
Planning Bill
12:30 pm
Jim Fitzpatrick (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Poplar and Canning Town, Labour)
On devolution, I said earlier in our deliberations that we wish to maintain our position on the settlement. However, I am well aware that Welsh Ministers have argued for the devolution of energy consents of more than 50 MW, and that there have been tripartite discussions on the matter between the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the Wales Office and the Welsh Assembly Government. However, the Government’s view is that reserving powers on nationally significant energy infrastructure is the best way to develop the UK’s long-term energy strategy. The planning White Paper made it clear that the current devolution settlement works well and the Government propose that it should continue. Given that position, it is clear that such projects must be included within the IPC’s remit. If they were not, major energy projects in Wales would continue to be determined by Ministers in Westminster under the old regime.
I should add that our reform proposals include a number of measures to ensure that when such decisions are taken away from Whitehall Ministers and passed to the IPC, the Welsh Assembly Government will have appropriate input to the process. For example, two or three commissioners will be appointed on the advice of the Welsh Assembly Government, and when a project relates to land in Wales, at least one of them will be on the panel of commissioners who consider it, whenever that is reasonably practicable. I hope that that answers the hon. Gentleman’s point and I apologise for not responding when I concluded my earlier remarks.