Planning Bill

At Second Reading the Minister said that, "““national policy statements will be planning documents of the highest order””" and that, "““Individuals and local authorities will be able to have their say on how the assumptions and difficult choices made at national level could have implications in their local areas””." She added: "““We will ensure that where the draft NPS is locationally specific, local peoples’ views are taken fully into account in the final NPS””." She also said that, "““we want there to be a proper national debate about the need for key infrastructure … to boost opportunities for public participation””.—[Official Report, 15/7/08; cols. 1161-63.]" The Minister went on to explain the clear procedures that must be followed before policy becomes a national policy statement. That is all excellent stuff, provided that it is applied to all national policy statements. It seems quite extraordinary that under Clause 12 a Secretary of State can just dust down an old policy, regardless of how old it is or whether any or all of the correct procedures and legislation have been complied with. Doing this may well undermine the very credibility of that national policy statement. We have tabled Amendment No. 95, which would remove Clause 12(3), because we do not believe it is good enough that the Secretary of State should be allowed merely to take account of pre-commencement consultation, regardless of when it was carried out and how thorough it was. There needs to be up-to-date and relevant consultation. As the Bill stands, there seem to be no checks or balances to ensure that correct procedures have been carried out and that legal requirements have been complied with for all, not just some, national policy statements. That is why various amendments are tabled to Clause 9 calling for affirmative resolution, the approval of both Houses and a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament once consultation and publicity requirements detailed in Clause 7 have been complied with. Those amendments would ensure that the correct procedures had taken place for all, and not just some, national policy statements. Once approved by both Houses, an NPS would have the force of law and therefore be very difficult to contest in the courts, but we will deal with those amendments later in Committee. In the mean time, the Minister may be able to clarify something when she responds. If the Secretary of State designates an old policy as a national policy statement, will it still have to go through the parliamentary requirements as laid down by Clause 9? At Second Reading, the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, said that, "““if people are dissatisfied with the system and it is in disrepute, they will go to judicial review and the courts and the system will be clogged up””.—[Official Report, 15/7/08; col. 1229.]" I agree with him. If the Government persist with the imperfections in Clause 12, they will create a rod for their own back and, instead of speeding up the planning process, the flawed NPS will be subject to endless legal challenges: judicial review, the UK courts, the European courts because directives have not been complied with, and the European Court of Human Rights because there was not, in the Minister’s words, a national debate and people’s views were not taken into account. We understand that the Government intend to adopt the 2003 air transport White Paper as the national policy statement in respect of aviation policy. I should probably declare an interest: I have flown this year; I flew last year; and I shall probably want to fly again next year. I have no particular axe to grind and I understand the arguments for expansion, but that policy is now five years old. If it were adopted as a national policy statement, there would be endless legal challenges, and I shall briefly give a few examples. First, if such a policy were being considered today, the proposals would first need to be subjected to a strategic environmental assessment to comply with EU directives which became law in this country by regulations in 2004—hence our Amendment No. 93. The aviation national policy statement would need to comply with those directives or risk legal challenge. Secondly, the Freedom of Information Act came into force in January 2005 but it was not until July this year that the Information Commissioner reported. The report was peppered with criticisms of the Department for Transport’s constant obstruction and prevarication in dealing with requests for information. Would that lead to legal proceedings? Perhaps it would. Thirdly, the Aarhus convention was ratified in 2005. The full title is the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. It lists airport development as one of the activities on which the public must have proper access to information, defined participation rights in the decision-making process and proper recourse in law. In so far as the UK Government had not ratified the Aarhus convention at the time of the air transport White Paper but have now done so, they have significantly greater obligations in these respects than they did in 2003. Legal proceedings? Maybe. Fourthly, on the pre-aviation transport policy consultations, the Secretary of State, Hazel Blears, at Second Reading in the other place, said: "““National policy statements will be subject to debate across the country””.—[Official Report, Commons, 10/12/07; col. 29.]" She also said that, "““there will be a transparent debate in public””.—[Official Report, Commons, 10/12/07; col. 36.]" The consultation on aviation in 2002 was not national but confined to areas around the airports. Even so, nearly 500,000 responses were received, and over 90 per cent were opposed to the Department for Transport’s proposals. It is questionable whether the consultation complied with the Minister’s statement that the Government would ensure that, when the draft national policy statement was locally specific, local people’s views would be taken into account in the final statement. Fifthly, on climate change, I know that the Minister has agreed to look at that issue again, which is welcome, but if the 2003 aviation and transport White Paper is adopted as a national policy statement, air transport policy as it stands might ride roughshod over the requirement to comply with climate change provisions. As aviation is the fastest growing contributor to carbon emissions it can be argued that the current aviation policy is at odds with the climate change provisions. Sixthly, the current aviation policy impacts directly on people’s human and property rights. If people feel that their basic human rights have been trampled on, there may be proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights. There is doubt that the process set out in Clause 12 will be compliant with the ECHR. Seventhly, the European habitats directive protects some of our most important habitats. If people feel that that is not being considered there may be legal challenges. Currently no recognition is given to the fact that this process must comply with that directive. Eighthly, earlier in Committee the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, tabled an amendment on the need for national policy statements to appraise our built heritage, scheduled ancient monuments and important landscapes. In replying to that excellent debate, the Minister said that PPSs 15 and 16 would critically feed into the NPS and that under Clause 58 local authorities, "““will be invited to submit a local impact report once an application has been accepted””.—[Official Report, 8/10/08; col. 267.]" That will not happen if the 2003 aviation policy is adopted as a national policy statement because the applications have already been made. We heard in that debate how at Stansted more than a dozen listed buildings will be demolished and that at Heathrow, according to John McDonnell, a Labour Member in another place, 10,000 of his constituents face losing their homes, including listed buildings and three primary schools. That is another highly emotive area of conflict and dissatisfaction. Those are just some of the problems and pitfalls that I foresee if the Minister persists in using old policies as national policy statements. I have used aviation as my template but the argument could apply equally to other national policy statements. For national policy statements to work they need to be robust, have genuinely ticked all the boxes and not be open to legal challenges. Clause 12 should be deleted or amended to state that such policy statements should not be adopted as national policy statements until they fully comply with all the requirements for appraisal and consultation as set out in the Bill. It is not just opposition parties that are against dusting down old policies and adopting them as national policy statements. There was opposition from the Minister’s party in another place. At Second Reading, John McDonnell said: "““Any attempt to incorporate the aviation White Paper into a policy statement would be an abuse of power””.—[Official Report, 10/12/07; col. 89.]" Paul Truswell said that that was, "““something I do not feel I could possibly support””.—[Official Report, 10/12/07; col. 66.]" The current aviation policy does not affect me. My opinion does not really matter, but the policy affects tens of thousands of members of the public and organisations that feel aggrieved. It matters to them. I have tried to point out the pitfalls should the Secretary of State be allowed to adopt an old policy document as a national policy statement. As the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, said, the system will get clogged up in the courts and the objective of speeding up the planning process will fail unless the Minister ensures that all national policy statements are planning documents of the highest order.