Commons Bill [HL]

The amendments relate to the circumstances in which replacement land has to be provided in any application for a deregistration and exchange order under Clause 15. If the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, will forgive me, I will start with Amendments Nos. 60 and 62, spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Livsey. Their effect would mean that in any deregistration and exchange proposal where the release land is more than 50 square metres in area, replacement land would have to be offered. Amendment No. 72 also provides that the Secretary of State is to have particular regard in any case where the release land is 50 square metres or less in area as to whether replacement land is being offered. The current threshold in the Bill is 200 square metres. We do not agree with the noble Lord and are therefore not content to accept the amendments because we believe it is appropriate for the national authority, whether the Secretary of State or the Assembly, to have the discretion where appropriate to make a deregistration order even when no replacement land is being offered. We accept that there should be limits to that discretion, which is why the Bill proposes that where the area of land to be registered is over 200 square metres, replacement land must be offered in all cases. That seems to strike a reasonable balance. There is a precedent for the de minimis area to be set at 200 square metres or thereabouts in other legislation relating to the deregistration and exchange of common land, namely the Acquisition of Land Act 1981. A further point is that the Bill ensures that the de minimis provision will apply only in exceptional circumstances. Clause 15(8), to which the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, drew our attention, makes it clear that the Secretary of State is to have particular regard to whether replacement land is being offered. The objective behind this provision is to ensure that replacement land is offered whenever possible, even if the release land is less than 200 square metres. I have been asked to comment on what the expression ““have particular regard to”” means. The clause is intended to emphasise that where an application is not accompanied by a proposal for replacement land, the national authority will have particular regard to that fact. No guarantees can be given about the result of such an application, but it leaves the applicant with a very clear steer that if replacement land is available he should provide it. ““Careful scrutiny”” is another expression which explains, to some extent, what the expression ““have particular regard to”” means. Amendment No. 59A, moved by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, would remove the de minimis provision currently contained in the Bill and would require that any application for deregistration under Clause 15 would need to contain a proposal for replacement land. I am afraid this is where, for the first time today, the noble Lord and I must part company. We believe it is appropriate for the national authority to have the discretion to make a deregistration order when no replacement land is being offered. Let me give an example of when that might be a sensible thing to do. An area of common land or green may be entirely landlocked by housing. To remove this provision, which is what is suggested, would be to remove the limited flexibility the national authority has to consider such exceptional cases where the area of land to be deregistered is relatively small—for example, to enable the installation of disabled access to community facilities—and where the proposal is supported overwhelmingly by local people. We believe that the Bill contains sufficient safeguards to ensure that replacement land is offered, save in exceptional circumstances. We appreciate the intention behind the amendments but we believe that we have struck the right balance. We believe that the threshold of 200 square metres is the right level. As the noble Duke said, it is not a large area, probably not much more than the floor area of this room—although there is no doubt somewhere a plan that will tell us exactly the size of this room in square metres. The safeguard in Clause 15(8) will ensure that all applications where no replacement land is being offered will be subject to close scrutiny. I invite the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.