Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

The noble Viscount has made an important point and has given the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, a chance to come back at me on the issue. The noble Viscount asks whether this is a power of last resort or for administrative purposes. I plump very much for the last resort. It will not be used carelessly or in a cavalier fashion, but as a very last resort. It is a long-stop power that I understand is taken with all NDPBs. There are three reasons for directions. The first is accountability of public funding if it goes completely awry. Secondly, they may be used for an NDPB—I do not mean the CRC but, for example, Natural England—where there is an enormous conflict of policy between that exercised by the board of the body and government policy. Thirdly, they may be used at the request of a board of a body on a highly political issue on which the board itself does not want to come down on one side or another, but seeks the direction of the Minister. Those are the three classic reasons for directions. Let us return to the Commission for Rural Communities. There, the power is an absolute last resort. The noble Baroness asked me what would be absurd. Of course Ministers decide whether something is absurd, but can the Committee imagine the outcry if the Secretary of State decided to make a direction on something that the CRC had done that was in every reasonable person’s view something with which the Government should not be intervening? The Secretary of State of any department—a political animal—would certainly not intervene in a body such as the CRC unless it was an absolutely extreme case. This is a back-up power that I would never expect to be used. The noble Viscount asked whether there are any draft directions. There are none. If there were to be any before Report—I am pretty certain that there will not be—of course I would make sure that the House knew about them.