Commons Bill [HL]

I wish to come back on something that the Minister said in reply to some of my amendments. Of course, in the first instance, I am disappointed in her reply to Amendment No. 174. I can see that the Government might disagree with the wording, but they have said that they do not agree with its purpose. I will probably need to look with more interest at government Amendment No. 182A, when come to it, to see what we might bring back on Report. In our debate on Amendment No. 179 we examined the small amounts that commons associations might wish to raise and the fact that if, say, three-quarters of its members were well-heeled and decided that membership should cost £100 per head, the other quarter might be unwilling to pay that. We were exploring the point to see whether there might be some way in which some members of the commons might try to exclude other members by putting up a financial hurdle. But the Minister has taken us into a more difficult area, simply by mentioning the question of bequests or grants. My mental processes are taking me back home to the exact parallel situation in Scotland, where all those who have common grazing rights have the pre-emptive right to buy the commons. I am not saying that some future government might not raise this matter, but the Scottish Parliament, in its wisdom, has provided a £10 million fund that it hopes to keep constantly topped up with money from the lottery in case it is expended, from which it is prepared to dole out for commons associations to buy their common grazings. Bequests have been given in other circumstances where people have thought it was an excellent idea that the common people who have rights of common grazing should be able to buy their commons. Even without the right of pre-emption, they have found occasion when it was opportune for them to do so. So commons associations, even under the Bill, could become powerful bodies. They will not necessarily be there just to collect small amounts of money to pay small expenses that they come across. We must look at what possible powers are hidden in this Bill with regard not to the circumstances of how commons are run at the moment but of how some future government might consider they should exist and be administered. In that light, I wish to withdraw my amendment and perhaps come back to the matter. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 175 to 179 not moved.]