Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, perhaps I may respond to the Minister. First, we agree with the amendment on funding, moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, which is one of the resources in local authorities. I understand what the Minister has said: that if the Government say they require it, then maybe funding will follow. None the less, it is quite an upheaval for many commons registration authorities. There is a cost attached to it and there are also staff allocations within local authorities. With that in mind, some of these authorities are very sparsely peopled at the moment. The question of the Land Registry is raised in Amendment No. 24. I understand what the Minister is saying, particularly as regards points of law. It would be a good thing, however, if at least the common rights are universally registered with the Land Registry by the commons registration authorities. In some searches, I gather, this is not the case at the moment. If that information is with the Land Registry, at least then anybody inquiring would know that the common rights exist. So there is still a communications problem. I do not think that it should be at odds with the law of the land. It is a question of good communication. With more commons registration authorities having the electronic facility, this may improve with time. We brought up this subject again and I wanted to explore it further, and that has now been done. I am not sure whether the noble Baroness will respond to her amendment, but I suspect so. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 17 [Deregistration and exchange: orders]: