Commons Bill [Lords]

First, I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping) when he thanked my officials for the way in which they have dealt with all matters relating to the Bill. His words were greatly appreciated by me and, I am sure, by them. At risk of placing my own position in peril, may I say that I often see merit in the words the former Opposition Chief Whip, the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (David Maclean) and that I am not averse to seeing merit in what he said on this occasion? I do not know whether the right hon. Gentleman has seen the briefing on the Commons Bill, which identifies the ownership of rights of common. I hope that it explains, to some extent at least, why we cannot adopt wholesale and simply the approach that he has commended this afternoon. The issue of the register failing to show who can exercise rights of common is an important one. Traditionally, rights of common are attached to land, typically a farm, and those rights may be exercised by the landowner. That means that most commoners have strong connections with the common, because they occupy farms that neighbour it. The Bill preserves and reinforces that connection by banning severance and by providing that the registers are conclusive evidence of the attachment of the rights to land. The Bill does not enable owners of such land to register their personal entitlement to exercise rights, because that entitlement is the inevitable consequence of their owning the land. Ownership of land can be demonstrated by registration of ownership in the Land Registry, as the right hon. Gentleman acknowledged. However, we acknowledge that it would be helpful if the register showed who is entitled to exercise rights. We will enable commoners to enter a supplementary note on the register, declaring their entitlement to exercise rights. The declaration would not be conclusive but may be informative. We are also exploring the possibility of providing in regulations that a commoner need not be consulted on any matter affecting the common unless he has declared his entitlement to those rights, thus giving him an incentive to do so.