Commons Bill [HL]

I heard the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, explaining his amendments and I hope that when I have explained mine he will see that they are less ambiguous and give a better description and more clarity. These amendments would remove the term ““sustainable agriculture”” and replace it with a prescriptive description, as drawn up by the Government’s Amendment No. 142, something which has already happened once. Clause 44 enables the relevant authorities—defined in subsection (8) as the appropriate national authority, Natural England, as it will be, the Countryside Council for Wales or a national park authority—to step in and stop unauthorised agricultural activity which is detrimental to the protection and promotion of sustainable agriculture from taking place on registered common land. The Government’s welcome Amendment No. 142 removes the term ““sustainable agriculture”” from Clause 30 of the Bill and replaces it with a prescriptive description. However, the phrase ““sustainable agriculture”” still remains in Clause 44 and I am interested to learn why it has been removed from one clause and yet left in another. The use of the term ““sustainable agriculture”” within the Commons Bill was ambiguous and would have left individual commons associations to interpret what they believed to be sustainable agriculture. This could have been at the expense of common land and its future viability. These amendments would enable the relevant authority to stop an unauthorised agricultural activity where it is shown to be detrimental to either the management of the agricultural activities on the land, the management of vegetation on the land or the management of rights of common on the land. This new drafting is much clearer than the original ambiguous,"““protection and promotion of sustainable agriculture on the land””." Unauthorised agricultural activities are detrimental to the long-term viability of the common. The most common agricultural activity to which this might apply is where one person is overgrazing on common land without the right to do so. A balance needs to be achieved between economic sustainability and sustaining the natural environment through biodiversity. These amendments will achieve this. The phrase ““sustainable agriculture”” can be defined in many ways. A rigid definition would restrict the ways in which individual commons associations could function on different commons. Activities that are appropriate for a large, privately owned upland common might not be suitable on one owned by the National Trust, for example, which must balance agricultural use with providing for public enjoyment, or on a common designated as an SSSI, where nature conservation might be of paramount importance.