Planning Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, said that his version was shorter and simpler, which may be the case—but I have to say not, to me, sweeter. I agree with noble Lords about the importance of the national policy statement. I depart from most speakers at that point. I hope that this is not interpreted as too much crawling to the Minister, but I have been impressed by the Government’s thoughtfulness in this area. Their proposed procedure has been extended considerably from the original proposals. It is about scrutiny. Good scrutiny—I do not like the word but it is an iterative process, a dialogue is created—requires a response to comments from the original proposer. In other words, it requires feedback. It is quite a complicated and long procedure. The Government have provided for both Houses of Parliament, if both Houses should wish, to take a thoughtful, detailed, forensic approach to what will be complex and, in some cases, controversial proposals. My concern about taking out most of that, which is in the second of the noble Lord’s amendments, and putting the national policy statements almost immediately to a parliamentary vote would polarise and politicise something which needs a much more careful approach. We all know that the Government would whip their people, as would the Opposition, and the Opposition would not be likely to be able to dig in and sort out the detail and the various points of principle in a way that I hope parliamentary committees are able to do; I hope too that that is not hope against experience. The noble Lord, Lord Cameron, referred to the need for Parliament to question and challenge the Executive. I agree with him absolutely, and the approach proposed by the Government in fact provides more opportunities for such question and challenge. The affirmative resolution procedure is precisely the way to ensure that the Executive get their way, possibly quite rapidly, unless there is a narrow majority or a lot of rebels. The Government’s model gives an opportunity—I use the word carefully because I hope that it will be taken up—for reflecting Parliament’s views and for adjustments to be made, and is therefore a very important opportunity. This is something to which my noble friends and I have given a lot of thought because we understand that a number of Members of the House of Commons might well prefer to see a rather more straightforward line. I appreciate the passions that this issue arouses and I am well aware, through my experience in a different sphere of government over the past eight years, that scrutiny may not always be as good as its advocates wish. We have to make it as good as its advocates wish. I say sorry to the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, but we are with the Government on this.