Commons Bill [HL]

I am grateful to Members of the Committee. I shall do my best to answer them. Remember that Natural England’s job will be to facilitate the establishment of commons associations. Those with interests in commons must come forward and request an association to be established. I suspect that that is what will happen in many cases where there is already an existing common or where a number of commons want to amalgamate and become one common. We hope that that will happen in a number of instances. Noble Lords are right: where we have an interest in forming associations—for example, on a common designated as an SSSI—we may offer more encouragement. One of the aims of the Bill is to assist the Government to meet its PSA target of moving 95 per cent of SSSIs into favourable condition within a few years. Those are examples of where we may encourage commons to be set up, but I repeat that, in the end, it is up to those with an interest in commons to come forward and put their proposals. On the definition of ““local””, where there is a keenness to set up an association and a need to do so, we hope that help will occasionally be forthcoming from Natural England. On the definition of ““geographical””, there must be some degree of targeted support for associations, particularly where SSSIs are not in a favourable condition, and that is what is meant by those two phrases. What will Natural England do in enabling or assisting the setting up of associations? Clearly, one needs to look closely, with Natural England, at a whole set of issues, such as guidance, advice and training. It will be no surprise to the Committee to know that we do not have the details yet, but we believe that it will have an important role to play. The Rural Development Service, which will be one part of Natural England, already has a track record in helping voluntary associations to form in some areas from agri-environment arrangements. That is the kind of activity that we hope to see extended under the new arrangements under the Bill. The huge importance of commons for nature conservation justifies, we believe, this kind of targeting. I have gone about as far as I can in answering the many pertinent questions asked by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, on how we see this developing. I return to the fact that it is the ordinary commoners, people interested in establishing a common under the Bill, who are really important here.