Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have an amendment in this group. Before I speak to it I should like to thank the Government. This is the first occasion this afternoon where they have responded clearly to the long and intricate discussions we had about many of these matters in Grand Committee and have come back with a different proposal from that which they put to the Committee. That is to be welcomed; it will be welcomed on every occasion on which it has happened. It certainly goes a long way towards meeting the concerns expressed in Grand Committee severance and the relationship between the commons association and Natural England or the Countryside Council for Wales. What concerned a lot of people was that one of the national quangos could buy severed rights over the head of the local commons association when the local commons association itself wishes to acquire those rights of common. The government amendment clearly sets out that that is no longer possible. Whether the local commons association can go on to acquire those rights will be a matter of further negotiation but the Government’s amendments go a long way to meeting the problems that we raised in Committee. Some people would like it to be set out more clearly. The noble Lord, Lord Jopling, referred in Grand Committee to wanting the commons association to be first in the order of precedence and my noble friends have tabled a similar amendment, which they will speak to later. It will be interesting to compare the Government’s approach with this different approach, but we are certainly a long way to where we want to be. I was going to put two amendments down to the Minister’s amendment when I first read it. The first I did not put down because it was covered by the amendment tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Peel. As he said, I put my name to this amendment. We need to understand whether or not the owner of the common is able to acquire these rights. At the moment, despite what the Minister has said, I am not clear that the owner does have that right. This proposed legislation—in the Government’s wording—refers only to Natural England, the Countryside Council for Wales or the commons association. That needs clarifying, as it is not clear to me why the owner of the common as opposed to the commons association should not be able to negotiate for these rights. Amendment No. 9 relates to the situation in which there is no commons association, which will clearly be the case for the vast majority of commons for the foreseeable future and perhaps for ever. The Government are saying that they will give notice of the proposal to,"““such persons as they consider represent the interests of persons exercising rights of common over the land.””" In other words, the commoners themselves, who are exercising those rights, have the right to be consulted on whether these rights should be transferred to Natural England. That seems right. The Government do not say that anybody has to take any notice whatsoever of any representations that the commoners make, or indeed representations that the owners make. I therefore propose that Natural England and the Countryside Council for Wales, in exercising their powers as to whether to acquire, must have regard to any representations that they have received. That is entirely reasonable and should be in the Bill. People will say, ““Why is it necessary? They can take notice of the representations and they can still put them in the bin.”” At least they will have read them first. The point is that if the actions of such bodies were to be challenged under judicial review for example, then they would have to show that they had given proper regard and they would have to have some reason for rejecting representations if that is what they had done. It is very important that in the due process of administrative decisions there is a proper line of decision-making showing that representations have been considered rather than their simply being put in the bin immediately, and that people can be told about them. This is a very reasonable proposal. I hope that the Government will consider something very similar to it.