Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

Perhaps I may develop briefly the wider concern about finance mentioned just now by my noble friend Lady Byford. If we compare Clause 14 covering grants with Clause 13 covering incidental powers, it is difficult to work out where the financial decision about money will be made. Clause 14 states simply that:"““The Secretary of State may make grants to Natural England of such amounts as the Secretary of State thinks fit””." At the same time, as my noble friend on the Front Bench has just pointed out, Clause 13 sets out the specific possibilities for Natural England. She said also that perhaps those possibilities go a bit far. Is there not an essential contradiction between Clauses 13 and 14? On the one hand, powers and functions are given to Natural England, but in the very next clause it is clear that decisions on the amount of money available are taken away and put in the hands of the Secretary of State. On that basis, how can the board of Natural England reasonably plan its finances over a three-year period? Add to that the factor brought in by my noble friend Lady Byford. The current thinking is that because of the relative decline in the CAP budget and the fact that single farm payments are more or less guaranteed for the next seven years, the amount of CAP money coming forward from Pillar 2 for agri-environmental schemes is likely to fall very substantially. Indeed, we know that some people already suggested a fall of 40 per cent in the money. I am glad to see that the Minister shakes his head: I hope that he is right. It is therefore hard to see, looking at Clauses 13 and 14 together against the background of a diminishing CAP budget in relation to Pillar 2, where the money is going to come from. It would be helpful to have some guidance from the Minister.