Commons Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Lord because he speaks with huge experience not just of the topic but of the part of England from which the noble Lord, on whose behalf he has addressed the amendment, comes. Amendment No. 31, which I have spoken to, brings in the commons association as a body that is an exception to the rule against severance. Other noble Lords were suggesting that commons associations should come before Natural England, and I responded by saying that I would go away and think about that possibility. The noble Baroness, Lady Byford, asked whether we should go through and agree this clause in the normal way. If we do so, it does not mean that we cannot discuss it or that decisions cannot be taken about it on Report in precisely the normal way. I have told noble Lords that we intend to go back and look at the issue again because of the strength of feeling in the Committee.