Planning Bill

Whatever our respective views on judicial review, its growth is a genie that is out of the bottle. I suspect that we would have great difficulty putting it back in completely. The Bill attempts to limit and confine the areas on which there might be judicial review, which I think is the purpose behind Clause 13. I suspect that, even if that clause was not there, the Secretary of State would always have the prospect of a judicial review of a decision not to review a national policy statement if material was placed before him that was relevant to his policy. I pointed to the clause to show the Committee that beyond any doubt there is a right of judicial review in those circumstances; it is prescribed in certain respects but, in any event, it would be there anyway.