Planning Bill

My Lords, as I indicated in relation to Amendment No. 1, I attach a great deal of importance to the role of the Secretary of State and the parliamentary requirements for the national policy statements. The Bill requires the Secretary of State to lay these statements before Parliament and either House can pass a resolution that must be replied to. The Minister has tabled Amendment No. 36, which rediscovers the committees of your Lordships' House and permits a committee of this House to make recommendations to which the Secretary of State must reply. This amendment is very welcome. However, it does not go as far as the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, which requires approval of national policy statements by affirmative resolution of both Houses. Having being so many years in this House, I have become an even more enthusiastic parliamentarian, and I would wish to see an affirmative resolution as the basis for the parliamentary approval of these national policy statements. In response to the point made on the Labour Benches, I do not mind at all if the affirmative resolution is by the House of Commons only and we do not have the facility to give one, but we have the right to make recommendations, as proposed by the Minister in Amendment No. 36.