Planning Bill

The noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, said that we need to be perfectly clear about what lies behind all this. In a non-technical fashion, I am perfectly clear about what lies behind all this. I am grateful for the offer of the detailed explanation. I was going to ask for it, but the Minister offered it. I picked up a couple of things that he said. First, he spoke about Transport and Works Act orders. The word ““orders”” is important. The noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, forcefully spoke about the constitutional position. The Minister also said that the key is flexibility. What is flexibility if you are the Government is probably too loose when you are the Opposition. Flexibility is the problem as well as the key. I was not clear from the Minister’s explanation of the ancillary matters whether the current inspectorate would say yes to the different ancillary matters that I went through fairly quickly. When he writes, it would be helpful if the Minister could cover that because if it is not a precise analogy, the Government’s defence is that much weaker. The examples he gave were not ones that I challenged in any of my amendments, and I am not clear that energy and waste matters, for instance, would come within the Transport and Works Act provisions that he was talking about in the direct way that he was dealing with them. I think they are different matters. As regards the safeguards he mentioned, the waiving of a statutory provision would have to be in the initial application. However, if I may say so, in terms of what we are questioning here, so what? We could debate model provisions, but those would simply be models in line with a national policy statement. We spent some time considering whether national policy statements should be approved by Parliament. I shall, of course, read carefully what the Minister said, but I am not convinced that his argument is as strong as it might appear on first hearing it. I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, spoke to Clause 116. My amendment was more extensive than his and I probably did not do it full justice, knowing how many amendments I had in this group. However, I blinked and blinked again when I read the paragraphs to which he referred, which was why I sought to delete them from the Bill. My probing amendment is a substantial probe in this case. However, for the moment, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 360 and 360A not moved.] Clause 116 agreed to. Schedule 5 [Provision relating to, or to matters ancillary to, development]: