Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 122A:"Page 13, line 21, leave out ““may”” and insert ““shall””" The noble Lord said: In moving Amendment No. 122A, I wish to speak also to Amendments Nos. 122B and 123A. On Tuesday of last week the Minister said that,"““we move into an era of e-government””.—[Official Report, 25/10/05; col. GC 269.]" Therefore, I could be forgiven for expecting some sympathy in tabling these amendments which would ensure that the appropriate national authority makes regulations requiring commons registration authorities to maintain commons registers in an electronic form. At a time of great technical advancement, coupled with the transparency of the Government, it should be possible that the information held in the register is in an electronic form. Currently, subsection (1) provides that the regulations may relate to part of a register. For example, regulations may provide only for maps contained in a register to be kept in an electronic form. Subsection (3) enables regulations to make provisions as to the process of conversion of a register or part of a register into an electronic form. Again, these amendments would ensure that all registers are kept in an electronic form. These amendments would also ensure that all parts of the register, and not, for example, only maps, are held in an electronic form. The Government encountered many problems in the translation of information under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 into electronic format. Often problems arose turning old, relatively small scale Ordnance Survey maps into a modern electronic mapping database. Will the noble Lord give us comfort that no such problems are expected to be encountered in this Bill? Can he give us comfort that the register will be freely available on the Internet? Finally, can he give some reassurance that adequate funding will be made available to the appropriate authorities under the Bill to ensure proper maintenance of the registration system? I beg to move.