Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

The noble Baroness, Lady Miller, through Amendment No. 228, raises an interesting and important point. With the demise of the National Rural Affairs Forum, the regional rural forums are increasingly important. They have the capacity to bring together in the regions precisely that wide coalition of voices about which I was speaking earlier. Clearly there must be some engagement between them and the new CRC, and mechanisms to achieve that are well worth exploring. I am sorry to disagree with the noble Baroness again, especially when we share a commitment to dealing with so many of the real rural issues together in the south-west, but I believe that she has chosen the wrong way forward. I believe that for three reasons. First, the chairmanship of a regional rural forum and the membership of an effective CRC are likely to require rather different skills sets. Secondly, there is likely to be a difference in the time commitment required. Many of the existing regional rural forum chairs would simply not be able to give the time commitment required to a robust and independent body without detriment either to that body or to the forum or to the very fields in which they have responsibilities that give them their standing and credibility. Thirdly, I believe that very different appointment processes are likely to be required. It is entirely right that the chair of a regional rural forum should be appointed by local representative means. However, if the CRC is to be robust and independent, if it is not to be that high-level talking shop that none of us wants, and if it is to have bite as well as bark, it will require a compact membership of real weight and experience and containing an appropriate balance of skills. That is likely to be best achieved through processes that are open and transparent, such as those offered through the Nolan procedures, which is why I support the thrust of Amendment No. 229. The noble Baroness has raised some important points but I hope that they might be explored in a rather different way.