Commons Bill [Lords]

I am grateful to the Minister for his explanation. I am sure that he has read all the papers and knows that Conservative Members support the Bill’s objectives and its approach to apportionment. I was merely trying to identify a particular problem. I am not entirely persuaded that it is perfectly reasonable for all those individual houses to have the right to graze one sheep. Although I readily accept that it is unlikely that people will want to exercise those rights, they may resist going through the paperwork to lease them to somebody who wants to exercise them. On the Minister’s point about over-grazing and under-grazing, if the rights are to be used, the owner must lease the rights to somebody else in order to lose them, which would be a lot of paperwork for one sheep. I accept the general point, to which we shall return on the next group of amendments. The Minister has rightly identified the issue of the creation of the association, and we may press him further when we reach the amendment on the balance between those who exercise their rights and the dozens, if not hundreds, of people who do not. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.