London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Bill

We are all agreed on the objectives. The noble Baroness indicated, and the noble Lord supports, that the intention behind the subsection is to create a Chinese wall between the people in the ODA who will be drawing up applications for planning permission and those people who will be taking decisions on those applications. We want a very clear separation, for reasons which will be well understood. I hear what the noble Baroness said. She accepts the concept of the separation. The effect of our paragraph is to ensure that anyone in the ODA engaged in the plans for the development of a piece of land may not participate in the deliberations of the ODA planning committee on that subject. The noble Baroness reduces that by saying, ““has an interest”” in the ODA’s functions. If I accept the amendment, it would not give effect to the intention of this paragraph. We seek to avoid conflicts of interest within the ODA as an organisation while fulfilling its role as a local planning authority. That is why we are so rigid about this and why this Chinese wall is erected so substantially and so high. I will resist any suggestion that its impact should be reduced, because it is in the public good.