Planning Bill

That is a very fair intervention from my noble friend. I can certainly promise him long and interesting discussions. I cannot go any further than that in giving any commitment but I shall certainly be ever eager to talk to him about this matter between Committee and Report. I turn to the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, who raised some interesting points regarding offshore issues and the future relationship of the Marine Management Organisation and the draft Bill. On the general principle of including offshore consents within the Bill there is an unprecedented amount of investment in our infrastructure required in the next decade or so, and we think that offshore renewables will play an important part. I understand that industry believes that 40 to 45 new large offshore wind farms will be needed within the next eight to 10 years to meet those challenges. We think that the IPC will be integral to achieving these goals for major offshore developments. That raises the question of how that integrates with the work of the Marine Management Organisation and the Marine Bill. That is a fair question. The Government’s intention is that offshore projects of 100 megawatts and below will be dealt with by the Marine Management Organisation, which is being set up under the proposed Marine Bill. That body will be the UK’s strategic delivery body in the marine area. We believe that the MMO’s role in marine environment matters is synonymous with the approach taken on land where local authorities will be taking decisions on smaller generating station projects. In addition, for energy developments under 100 megawatts the MMO will provide a one-stop shop single decision-making process similar to the IPC single consent regime. I understand that noble Lords have a number of points to make about the way in which this will work with the MMO regulation. I am happy to go through it in detail, or I can set it out in writing if noble Lords prefer.