Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I was hoping that the noble Lord would do that. I have made our point on why we do not think that making what, on the face of it, sounds like an attractive addition to the clause is appropriate. I repeat: emergencies can be dealt with under existing legislation, and, of course, would be dealt with under emergency legislation. Amendment No. 60, I understand, is a probing amendment. I shall try to explain where we come from on it. The intention is to find out when the Government intend to make orders specifying certain exemptions from the controls. We do not envisage that just one order would be made. A number of them could be made as and when the national authority considered it appropriate to do so. My letter tried to explain to noble Lords that we saw the system as a flexible one, allowing the national authority to decide at any time to make an order. What may prompt the making of such an order might be the result of work undertaken by the national authority itself, or it could happen as a result of a request from another body. We see the system helping to ensure that the consent regime effectively protects the open and unenclosed nature of common land, without imposing unnecessary or unwarranted burdens on anyone. Although I have to emphasise that the decision to issue an order is discretionary, I can give a reassurance that our intention is to make such orders specifying exemptions where it is appropriate. We envisage taking forward the question of exemptions at the same time as the implementation of Part 3 generally. That process will involve consultation with interested parties. There will be an opportunity at that stage for people to comment on our proposals and to put forward suggestions of their own. That is as far as I can go tonight in dealing with the amendment.