Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, may well withdraw his amendment, but whether he is satisfied with the Government’s reply is a different matter. I am grateful for what the Government have said and in particular for their Amendment No. 21. That is more than a minor, technical matter. The balance of the wording is significantly different and improved. It refers to patches of land that are to be deregistered which are less than 200 square metres. However, I do not think that Amendment No. 21 covers the point that I am making in Amendment No. 20, which refers to all deregistrations and replacements—not just those of less than 200 square metres. The noble Baroness says that we can be assured over the question of whether the quality and size of the patch, and so on, are sufficient to warrant deregistration of the original release land. She says we can be assured that that will happen. I would rather have things in the Bill. By the time this legislation is replaced by the next Commons Bill, most of us will probably not be on this Earth. Who knows who will be administering such legislation at that time? So the assurance that everything will be okay on the day is not necessarily adequate. This is something to which I may well want to return. In the mean time, I may engage the Minister in correspondence about it. Having said that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.