Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

The noble Lord, Lord Renton, asked me what the CRC would add compared with the Countryside Agency. As the noble Earl, Lord Peel, mentioned and as was referred to in the report of the noble Lord, Lord Haskins, we dealt with the delivery of functions as well as having advisory functions, and those delivery functions will no longer be applicable. So the CRC will be much more focused. He then spoke about farmers in the countryside and the difference that it would make to them. I am afraid that farmers represent less than 5 per cent of the rural population and less than 1 per cent of the whole population, so it is the other 95 per cent of the rural population in which we are mostly interested in terms of the CRC. That is not to say that farmers are not important in their own right. The noble Earl, Lord Peel, mentioned that the CRC may have problems in dealing with the environment across the board. The Countryside Agency currently produces a state-of-the-countryside report, which includes a chapter on the environment. It merely draws in information, which will probably come from Natural England as much as anywhere else, and produces it in a comprehensive form. The purpose of the amendment that relates to that is that it should be a presentation to Parliament as opposed to the general public. The noble Lord, Lord Judd, also mentioned that the CRC would work in partnership with the local authorities. That is true. When I chaired the Countryside Agency, I was perpetually strengthening the hand of the Rural Commission of the LGA and worked very closely with it, so that is absolutely correct.