Planning Bill

Does the noble and learned Lord share my feeling—he referred to Clause 13—that with the whole of these provisions one is leaving too much to the courts via judicial review? As I said the other day, this has got a bit out of hand. The figures show a hundredfold increase in judicial review cases in recent years on what went before. I find the readiness of the courts to engage in policy making, usurping the function of the Executive and legislature, a disturbing development. It should be possible for Parliament, when considering the Bill and particularly this question of the review, to reduce the prospects of an appeal via judicial review by being sufficiently specific. I recognise that the clause from which the noble Lord quoted seemed to envisage a whole lot of judicial review, but I would have thought that we would want to reduce the possibilities of that. Apart from anything else, it introduces a whole new dimension of uncertainty. As the Minister has frequently said—and I entirely agree with her—one purpose of this legislation is to try to reduce uncertainty, so that investors and those who will spend huge sums of money on building up the infrastructure have a much clearer idea of where they stand. That was a long intervention, for which I apologise, but does the noble and learned Lord, Lord Boyd, with his great experience in this, feel that there is substance in what I am saying—that we should try to be more specific to reduce the opportunities for judicial review?