Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 202:"Page 20, line 12, leave out ““works which are””" The noble Lord said: This group of government amendments includes one opposition amendment that will be spoken to in due course. Amendments Nos. 203, 208 and 209 are intended to bring clarity to the circumstances in which works authorised by, or in pursuance of, any enactment are exempt from the Clause 36 controls. They make clear that works will be exempt if the requirements of either paragraph (a) or paragraph (aa), contained in Amendment No. 203, are met. I shall explain that more fully. In paragraph (a), particular works or a particular description of works in relation to a defined site must be authorised by, or pursuant to, an enactment. For example, some local Acts conferring management powers in relation to common land authorise boards of conservators to carry out improvement works such as temporary fencing. Such Acts would pass the test in paragraph (a) because they authorise a particular description of works, the fencing, in relation to a particular site, the common, the management of which is vested in the conservators. Under paragraph (aa) the works must be authorised by, or in pursuance of, an enactment expressed to apply to common land. An example is Section 83 of the Highways Act 1980, which provides that the highway authority may provide a cattle grid on any common land not forming part of the highway but adjoining the highway. That provision would pass the test in paragraph (aa) because it relates to works—the construction of cattle grids—in relation to common land generally. Amendments Nos. 202, 204, 206 and 207 make technical changes to Clause 36, consequent on Amendment No. 203, to which I have spoken. In Amendment No. 208, paragraph (b) provides that a commons association is not exempt from the requirement to seek consent for works under Clause 36 by virtue of any function conferred on it under Part 2. That is because there might be an argument that the conferral of functions on a commons association in an establishment order could amount to the first of the exceptions introduced in Amendment No. 203. It would not be right that a commons association was exempt from the usual requirements to seek consent under Clause 36. Also in Amendment No. 208, paragraph (a) is a technical amendment consequent on paragraph (b). I beg to move.