Environmental Noise (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, I hope that the noble Lord will give me the opportunity to develop the argument a little further. I wanted to emphasise the very limited framework within which the Secretary of State’s power is defined. Inevitably, when directives are issued, it is important that we keep our own legislation up to date with changes in European legislation. If we fail to do so, we risk being found guilty of infraction by the Commission, which could subject us to significant fines. The power to make these ambulatory references was introduced to make it easier to keep our legislation up to date without having constantly to amend it. After all, where the amendments are small and technical, it would not be appropriate to increase the inevitable legislative burden on Parliament when the changes are not the source of any considerable political interest. Being the continuation of a policy that we are already signed up to with regard to the legislation following from the European directives, we therefore need these minor emendations. The subject of these regulations is a clear illustration in point. The noble Lord, Lord Patten, referred to what might be the burden of the regulations, whereas other noble Lords have stayed specifically with the question of the power. I was grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Patten, for that because the regulations are about environmental noise. We all recognise that noise can cause serious disturbance and annoyance to people. There is emerging evidence that longer term exposure to high levels of noise can cause direct health effects. The Government also recognise that that has to be balanced against the obvious fact that noise is an inevitable consequence of our evolving society and that any measures we take to tackle noise have to balance the importance of trying to keep noise at as low a level as possible, but with the inevitable economic and social benefits that can accrue from the activity which causes noise. That is a constant factor of the situation we face. The Government’s policy on noise is to promote good health and good quality of life through the management of noise in the context of sustainable development. We are doing that to avoid significant adverse effects on health and quality of life, and to mitigate and minimise such adverse effects. Successive Governments have addressed the effects noise causes over the years and we are aware that we need instruments of effective management. Under these regulations, the action plans are determined to see what can be done in those places worst affected by noise, but within the context of sustainable development. So we need to address that issue. We operate within the framework of a European directive. All that is being sought with regard to the ambulatory reference is that it applies to environmental noise. This aspect applies in response to the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, who raised this issue. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, and my noble friend Lord Rosser also made reference to how much this affects the United Kingdom. This ambulatory reference involves England only. The devolved Governments and Assemblies make their own decisions, but this power and the subject of consideration this evening are regulations which apply to England only.