Planning Bill

My Lords, we have had a powerful and enjoyable debate. I am grateful to everyone who has taken part. In Committee, I undertook to think further about the points raised by noble Lords because I was deeply impressed by the quality of the argument, and I have tabled Amendment No. 36 in response. I do not want to reiterate the thinking behind it except to say that we have put in place a genuinely novel form of parliamentary scrutiny. It is the product of hard work and integrity between the Minister and the chairs of the Select Committees in the other place. We now have a stronger role for Parliament in scrutinising draft national policy statements. Most recently, this has been set out in a report of the Liaison Committee. The process shows the House of Commons at its best and doing its job of scrutinising policy. Because of the time, I shall not read through how it will happen but, when the committee has finished its work, parliamentary scrutiny will continue for four to six weeks beyond the close of public consultation to enable the committee to take any additional account that might be necessary of the significant issues raised during that consultation. Ministers have undertaken to ensure that briefing and information on those issues is made available to the committees to enable them to do this. Then Ministers will consider what change is needed to the draft NPSs in the light of the views of the committees and in respect of any resolution of either House and public consultation. A statement will then be laid before Parliament setting out the Government’s response. The draft proposals will be revised, as appropriate, before the laying of the final version of the NPS. This is a novel and robust scrutiny process for the NPSs. It will ensure that a committee is able to scrutinise proposed policy in detail, to call witnesses as necessary and to take account of consultation responses. It will ensure that where, on the basis of this consideration, the committee thinks that there are issues which Parliament as a whole needs to consider, it can recommend that there should be a debate in both Houses on the draft NPS. It will ensure that Ministers have to explain to Parliament how they have addressed any recommendations of the committee and resolutions of either House. Parliament will have spoken, and Ministers will have listened. I believe that in doing so, they will indeed have demonstrated what has been discussed across this House as the nature of parliamentary authority. They will also have demonstrated the power of scrutiny. I have gone into that background because I want to make the contrast between parliamentary scrutiny and parliamentary approval, which is what the debate has turned on. Parliamentary approval of policy is an altogether different proposition, and noble Lords on all sides have demonstrated that brilliantly in the past half hour. I cannot accept Amendments Nos. 34 and 35. They require parliamentary approval of national policy statements and I believe that that is seriously inappropriate. National policy statements are documents that set out government policy. They are not secondary legislation; they are not primary legislation; they do not seek to change the law. They are similar in nature to White Papers and planning policy statements. Just as the Government do not seek parliamentary approval before they set out their policy—