Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 14:"Page 16, line 33, leave out from ““persons”” to ““land”” and insert ““having rights (other than rights of common) in relation to, or occupying””" The noble Baroness said: My Lords, Amendment No. 14 makes a minor change to the description of persons whose representations the national authority must have particular regard to in deciding whether to make an order establishing a commons association. Clause 27(5)(a) refers to persons who have an interest in land, a point made by several noble Lords and by the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, at earlier stages. Our amendment would refer, instead, to persons who have rights in relation to land. The amendment ensures, first, that we achieve greater consistency with similar provisions in other clauses. Secondly, the amendment removes the possibility of uncertainty about what is meant by an interest in land. Noble Lords on all sides of the House raised that question. Many people are interested—in the informal sense of the word—in how a common is managed or in using a common for some purpose. But these are not the sort of people to whom we think the national authority should have particular regard when deciding whether to establish a commons association. In our view, particular regard should be paid only to representations from those with legal rights in relation to a common, and that includes owners and those with other legal rights, such as sporting rights. Subsection (5)(a) now clearly applies to those who either occupy the land or have rights in relation to it, other than those with rights of common; the latter are separately dealt with in subsection (5)(b). Of course, we still have subsection (5)(c), which ensures that particular regard is paid to representations from persons who have statutory functions relating to the maintenance or management of the land. I hope we have reassured noble Lords. I beg to move.