Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 218:"Page 22, line 2, at end insert—" ““(2A)   If a person fails without reasonable excuse to comply with an order under subsection (2) above, he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale; and if the offence is continued after conviction he is guilty of a further offence and liable to a fine not exceeding one-twentieth of that level for each day on which the offence is so continued. (2B)   Where, after a person is convicted of an offence under subsection (2A) above, the local authority for the common concerned exercises any power to remove the cause of the obstruction, they may recover from that person the amount of any expenses reasonably incurred by them in, or in connection with, doing so.”” The noble Lord said: Although Amendment No. 218 looks technical, it is a probing amendment to discover what sanctions the Government believe should exist—or whether they believe that any should exist—in the event of a person obtaining a court order for encroachments to be removed under Clause 36 and no action taking place. Amendment No. 218 is based on Section 317ZA of the Highways Act, which refers to obstructions to rights of way introduced by the CROW Act in 2000. This may not be the best way to do it, but it seems strange that the Government are not suggesting sanctions, and that the Commons Bill does not contain sanctions, to be used against someone if the removal of, say, a fence or a hut is found necessary but not carried out. In the event of such a decision and someone being told by the court to comply, what happens if they do not? What ought to be in the Bill, if anything, to provide such sanctions? Amendment No. 218A goes further. It would give a member of the public or a person—that might be a body, a local authority or someone else—power to remove the unlawful development or structure on the common and to recoup the costs. That is a more radical proposal, but underlying it is the question that the Government need to answer. Once people have exercised the welcome rights in the Bill to take legal action against people unlawfully encroaching on a common, what happens and how is the position to be resolved? I beg to move.