Commons Bill [HL]

There is certainly no answer to that. First, our amendments will amend provision for the registration of waste land of the manor under paragraph 2 so that the test of whether the land is truly waste land is applied at the date of application, and not at the date on which the application is determined. Perhaps I should note here, if the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, will forgive me, that the effect of his Amendment No. 93, is that the test would be brought earlier in time to what I take to be the date of Royal Assent. Secondly, our amendments would clarify the circumstances in which application may be made for deregistration of wrongly registered common land or town or village green. We see the amendments to paragraph 2 as helpful in ensuring that, when an application has been made for the registration of land, the tribunal will have to consider whether the land was waste land of the manor at the date of the application. So it will do the landowner no good if he seeks to do something to the land when the application has been put in, such as enclosing or cultivating it, because that can have no effect on the outcome of the application. That seems to us an entirely sensible precaution against pre-emptive strikes. The second raft of amendments will ensure that applications for deregistration of wrongly registered common land and greens can be made, even when there was a referral under the Commons Registration Act 1965 of the original registration to the commons commissioners regarding the ownership of the land. It was not our intention to rule out applications in such cases, but it has been suggested that that is one possible interpretation of the wording in paragraphs 4(2)(c) and 5(2)(c) of Schedule 1. The amendments will clarify that such a referral must have taken place under Section 5 of the 1965 Act—meaning that there was an objection to the registration of the land or rights of common—rather than a referral to determine ownership under Section 8. We are happy to put that beyond doubt, although unfortunately it seems that it demands rather a large number of amendments to the schedule. I beg to move.