Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

moved Amendment No. 203:"Page 6, line 3, leave out paragraphs (b) and (c)." The noble Baroness said: This is a simple, clarifying amendment that seeks to identify how exactly and to what extent Natural England will use its so-called incidental powers. I have been reassured in consultation that it is quite natural for a public body to have incidental powers, but I am slightly alarmed that under Clause 13 Natural England may,"““do anything that appears to it to be conducive or incidental to the discharge of its functions””." The clause continues:"““In particular, Natural England may . . . acquire or dispose of property””," or ““borrow money””. That seems to be a remarkably wide-ranging description of powers that are meant to be merely incidental. In my layman’s reading of the clause, if Natural England decided that it wanted to carry out a biodiversity function on a farm, it would be perfectly able to do so under the clause, overriding the management agreements and constrictions that have already been heavily debated. Will the Minister tell us how Natural England will be financed in the future? In earlier debates, we talked about start-up clauses and the costs and savings. Certainly, Lord Haskins’ review was clear about two things: first, the body should reduce regulation; secondly, it should reduce costs. We have debated those costs, and the Minister has kindly written to me about them, but I am talking about future costs. Will Defra or other departments give grants so that Natural England can maintain the very nature of what it is supposed to be doing, or might Natural England look elsewhere for funding; for example, from the National Lottery? Will the Minister comment on the article in Monday’s edition of the Daily Telegraph, which said:"““‘Green’ farms face 40pc cut after EU deal by Blair””?" That suggests that there will be great pressure on money available through the Rural Development Service for the agri-environment agreements. If so, what will happen to the bodies and to the agreements that farmers and former bodies have had? I understand that money is likely to be obtained from the National Lottery, which slightly alarms me. I must question whether this is the right place for the funding of such a major new non-departmental public body, because on the whole the lottery is a one-off available funding source. If it will be competing with other bodies that might want to appeal to the lottery for grants, will it have the prime pull on that money, and if so, is that not likely to jeopardise other smaller bodies that want to appeal on their own behalf rather than through Natural England to gain extra grants. There is therefore quite a large question mark on the future funding of Natural England.