Planning Bill

My Lords, the government amendments are, indeed, helpful, but my noble friend Lord Jenkin of Roding raised a fundamental point about timing. I have met potential applicants who are desperate to know how far they can go before the Act is even in place. That raises an interesting issue as to whether they are able to deal with the technical aspects of their application. If there is a proposal to build a nuclear power station on an existing site, a lot of design work and so on can be done; but we need to recognise that applicants in that situation will want to start work almost while the commission is being established. One purpose of my standing up to support my noble friend is to ask the Minister whether the Government have a view on how far potential applicants can go in preparing an application before the commission is ““up and running””. The commission will probably have to be established on one day and to expect its first application on the second day of work. Some of the subjects under discussion are very urgent. Is it in the background of the Government’s thinking that it will be technically possible for applicants, not to put in an application straight away—public consultation and that part of the report would have to be done—but to carry out the great deal of work that they can do? It would be interesting to know the Government’s views on this. One would not wish anyone to cause themselves embarrassment because some of the papers were dated before the existence of the commission, when it is perfectly well known that when the application finally comes before the commission it will be in the proper form.