Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 215:"Page 21, line 37, leave out ““eligible””" The noble Lord said: Government Amendment No. 215 extends to any person the power to take enforcement action against unlawful works. I say at once that I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, will be pleased with the amendment, because it goes further even than his amendments in this group. As well as individuals, it would include corporate and other bodies, which we consider to be an appropriate extension of the power. The new wording also addresses a potential difficulty with the original formulation, which conferred the power on anyone with a right of access to the affected land. That might have given rise to a loophole whereby individuals could not have brought enforcement actions against works carried out in contravention of Clause 36 if the effect of the works was to cause the land to cease to be subject to a right of access under CROW—for example, if the land became excepted land because it had been built on. As a result of the extended power in Clause 39(1), subsections (3) and (4) thus become superfluous. All the bodies listed in those subsections will be eligible to take action under the new formulation in subsection (1), so those provisions are removed by government Amendment No. 219. Government Amendments Nos. 231, 242 and 243 are consequential on Amendments Nos. 215 and 219. The national park and broads authorities do not now need specific powers to take enforcement action. Those powers are conferred by Clause 39 as amended. Finally, government Amendment No. 232 introduces transitional provisions for unlawful works undertaken before Clause 39 comes into force. We consider it appropriate that similar enforcement provisions be applied to all unlawful works once the new Act is in force, whether those works were undertaken before or after it became law. Thus, we have amended Section 194(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925 to achieve that. I beg to move.