Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 57A:"Page 24, line 12, at end insert—" ““(   )   The appropriate national authority shall issue guidance to local authorities on the exercise of their powers to take action against unauthorised works on common land. (   )   Natural England and the Countryside Council for Wales shall from time to time report to the appropriate national authority on the operation and effectiveness of the powers to prevent unauthorised works on common land.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, Amendment No. 57A is the first amendment in this group. In case the noble Baroness and others are still working from old groupings lists, I had better make clear what is in this group. It starts with Amendment No. 57A, which I am moving, and includes Amendments Nos. 61A, 61B, 61C and 61D, which refer to a slightly later clause—Clause 45. I have tabled this amendment in order to respond as best as I can to what the Minister said in Grand Committee in reply to a series of rather different amendments which I moved at that time. I have tried to set out in my amendments what I understand the Minister said was the Government’s intention regarding how the system would work in the future. At the same time, I have tried to strengthen slightly the provisions relating to local authorities taking action over unauthorised works on common land—unauthorised encroachment—and I have attempted to tackle the problem, which we discussed at some length in Grand Committee, of the failure of local authorities to take this area of work seriously over a long period of time. There is a general feeling that this is not an area of work in which local authorities are interested and they do not exercise their powers in this area very effectively. When this was discussed in Grand Committee, the Minister said that the Bill, particularly what is now Clause 45, sets out the powers of local authorities more clearly. I believe the noble Baroness responded to this point in Committee. The proposition put forward on behalf of the Government was that by setting out the powers of local authorities more clearly and making it easier for everyone to understand what their powers are in that respect, it is likely that they will make more use of those powers. That seems to me to be a sensible argument and one that will probably go some way towards what we all want, which is for local authorities to take their powers seriously on serious and important encroachment on commons. However, I do not believe it goes far enough. It would be useful to set further things out in the Bill. Amendment No. 57A is probably not in the right place in the Bill—it may not matter too much at this stage. I believe it would be better put with Clause 45. The bones of the amendment are that:"““The appropriate national authority shall issue guidance to local authorities on the exercise of their powers to take action against unauthorised works on common land””." The Minister, when replying to a different amendment in Grand Committee, said that it was the intention of the Government to issue such guidance, and that that would be done in the future, although it had not been done for many years, and that that would assist local authorities in their work. That is very true. I suggest that it would be very helpful if the need for that guidance and the requirement on the Government to issue guidance could be put on the face of the Bill. At col. GC 276, the noble Baroness, Lady Farrington, said:"““We will also wish to provide guidance to local authorities on the undertaking of their functions under this Bill and that will certainly include advice about the use of their powers under Clause 43””." That clause is now Clause 45."““I am not aware that such advice has been provided in recent years and I hope that that will provide some reassurance to the noble Lord””.—[Official Report, 14/11/05; col. GC 276.]" I am partly reassured, but I am never fully reassured by Ministers who try to tell us what future governments will do or what their own government will do next year. The legislative procedures in this House and in the House of Commons are full of occasions when Ministers tell us that they intend to do something but they do not get around to it, perhaps because Ministers and circumstances change. I believe that there is great value in putting this on the face of the Bill. The second part of Amendment No. 57A is a useful addition, although not one for which I would die in a ditch. Natural England and the Countryside Council for Wales shall provide appropriate advice to the Secretary of State on the operation and effectiveness of the powers to prevent unauthorised works from time to time. I believe that that would be helpful. However, it is not crucial to what I am proposing. The rest of the amendments set out how local authorities would deal with complaints which I believe is crucial. In Grand Committee, I proposed that local authorities should have a duty to take action against all encroachment and it was suggested to me that that was inflexible, did not provide them with the opportunity to solve problems in other ways and, in particular, it meant that trivial complaints, if they were technically encroachments, would have to be acted upon. We discussed what might be minor encroachments such as erecting a sign saying ““This is a common””. I accept what the Government said on that. It was very sensible. It should not be a duty. However, it is sensible to set out on the face of the Bill more clearly the way in which local authorities should carry out their powers and should actively pursue the procedures. I accept what the Government said in Grand Committee and this amendment is my attempt to put on the face of the Bill what they said. The slightly complex amendments, Amendments Nos. 61A to 61D, if adopted, would have the following effect. Amendment No. 61B says that a local authority,"““shall consider any report that it receives of unlawful interference in common land or a town or village green to which this section applies””." Secondly, they may take any reasonable steps to protect the land against unlawful interference that could be taken by an owner in possession of the land. They have to consider it, but they will then exercise their proper judgment on whether to take action and on what action to take. Thirdly, they may institute proceedings, as already set out in Clause 45(2)(b). That adds clarity to the Bill and it would be an instruction to local authorities on how to act if they receive a complaint. It will provide them with all the flexibility that the noble Baroness said, quite rightly, they needed. My final point is that in Committee I suggested that the commons registration authorities should have that duty. The noble Baroness quite rightly pointed out to me that all local authorities have that power to take action and, therefore, the amendment that I am moving today refers to all local authorities and not simply to commons registration authorities. I am agreeing with what the Government told me in Grand Committee and asking them to set it out more clearly in the Bill so that local authorities have greater motivation and greater understanding of what they have to do. To do that under Amendment No. 57A, the Government will be under an obligation to provide them with appropriate guidance. That seems to me to be an entirely reasonable amendment and I look forward to the Minister’s response.