Planning Bill

As I expected, the right hon. Gentleman made a genuine and practical point. When he has a chance to examine the Bill in detail, he will realise that it includes provisions that set out exactly how the panel will operate. In some circumstances there will be a panel of three to five commissioners who will consider applications, because some of those 45 applications will relate to energy, some to aviation and some to ports and harbours. We will want people on that commission with a degree of expertise and knowledge that is specific to an application. We anticipate that probably only 30 of the 45 applications will be major applications and that the other 15 will be ancillary to those applications, so some could be considered by a single commissioner reporting back to the council of the commission. That is all in the Bill, however, if the right hon. Gentleman has a chance to look at it.