Planning Bill

I shall briefly supplement the remarks of my noble friend Lord Howarth of Newport. As I understand it—I am by no means an expert—the IPC operates within a framework and cannot operate outside the parameters of the national policy statements. It is in the drawing up of the national policy statements where parliamentary and public input is most prominent. At the risk of sounding terribly sycophantic, I commend an article in today’s House Magazine by my noble friend the Minister, which sets out absolutely clearly that the IPC is independent and, "““free to reject any application which it considers fails to meet the conditions set out in the NPS””." It is hardly a powerful body, flying around the universe doing exactly what it likes.