Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, after the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, I must declare my interest as a Highland and upland farmer, and someone who does make claims under agri-environmental schemes—though I am not necessarily doing myself much good in that regard during my time here. I have listened with interest to the contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Tyler. After scratching my head a little, I find myself in some sympathy with the Minister in looking for a simpler way to phrase the objective here. As the single farm payment runs in England at the moment, the various people who have an interest in the historical element of common grazing will have amalgamated their payments on to their own holdings. So there will be no historical payments on the commons but I do not know what will happen to the land-based payments. Perhaps the noble Lord wants the commons associations to have the power to register themselves as agricultural holdings. This is a complicated area and the Minister has perhaps taken the right approach.