Planning Bill

moved Amendment No. 62: 62: Clause 7, page 4, line 13, at end insert— ““( ) The Secretary of State shall provide for early public participation, when all options are open and effective public participation can take place, within a transparent and fair framework.”” The noble Earl said: The amendments in this group are to help to make Clause 7, on the consultation and publicity process, more comprehensive. We define the steps that ought to be taken much more closely than does the Bill. The Barker report found that most people will not support any new energy infrastructure when specific projects are proposed near where they live. That is a fundamental conflict between the urgent need to build new infrastructure and the need to empower local communities. It is vital that all those involved in and affected by national infrastructure policy and subsequent planning decisions feel empowered and able from an early stage to have satisfactory input into the process that leads to decisions on proposed developments. Recently, when the Minister chaired a meeting for noble Lords with representation from the CBI, energy, ports, wind and town planning, we were told twice that the national policy statement for nuclear had already been started. We have heard that again today from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Boyd. That was news to me. Had I missed something? When and how would I be consulted? No doubt it is still in the early days, but it raises the whole question of how consultation will take place and what publicity is required. How will organisations and members of the public become aware that this process is taking place? The details of what consultation should take place are not spelt out in Clause 7(2), which currently provides only that consultation and publicity should be as may be decided by the Secretary of State as, "““appropriate in relation to the proposal””." Clause 7(4) says: "““The Secretary of State must consult such persons, and such descriptions of persons, as may be prescribed””." That sounds a little feeble and needs fleshing out in the Bill. Clause 7(5) says that ““appropriate steps”” must be taken to publicise the proposal, if the proposed policy, "““identifies one or more locations as suitable (or potentially suitable) for a specified description of development””." Presumably, those are steps that are effective in publicising a proposal in the area concerned, but the Bill does not say that. Before I start talking about the amendments, I must say that they may not be exhaustive. I hope that they will provoke debate and will be seen as a constructive attempt to improve this clause by fleshing out the requirements. Amendment No. 62 says: "““The Secretary of State shall provide for early public participation, when all options are open””—" that is, not yet decided— "““and effective public participation can take place, within a transparent and fair framework””." Amendments Nos. 63 and 64 leave out the existing subsections (4) and (5) and put in their place: "““The consultation period shall not be less than 12 weeks … The publicity arrangements shall include advertisement in one or more national newspapers and the … Gazette, placing the proposal and relevant supporting material on the Secretary of State’s website and giving notice to Parliament””." Amendment No. 65 states: "““If the national policy statement relates, in whole or part, to England, the Secretary of State shall consult Natural England, the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, the Environment Agency and the Local Government Association””." The remainder of the amendment deals with who should be consulted in Scotland and in Wales. These consultees may not be the only ones required; there may be others. Currently, the Government intend that consultation with statutory agencies such as the Environment Agency should be a matter for secondary, not primary, legislation. We believe that statutory agencies should without question be consultees and should be specifically referred to in the Bill. Amendment No. 67 states: "““The publicity provided for under subsection (5) shall include advertisement in a newspaper circulating in the locality, the display of one or more site notices at the location and placing copies of the proposal and relevant supporting material for inspection by the public at one or more places in or convenient to the location””." Amendment No. 68 states: "““If subsection (5) applies, any authority required to be consulted under section 8 shall also be consulted on the proposal … If subsection (5) applies, the Secretary of State shall consult any parish or town council (if in England) or any community council (if in Wales) whose area includes the location or is within 10 miles of the location””." I remind your Lordships that we are considering large infrastructure projects whose impact might be felt over a large radius; that is the reason for the words, "““within 10 miles of the location””." Amendment No. 69 deals with subsection (6), which states: "““The Secretary of State must have regard to the responses to the consultation and publicity in deciding whether to proceed with the proposal””." We wish to add the words, ““with or without modifications””. Amendment No. 70 would add to that: "““The Secretary of State shall give reasons for designating a statement as a national policy statement, including his reasons for not following any representations made””." We have tabled that amendment because there is no point in having a consultation process if objections are ignored without any reasons being given. Our final amendment in the group, Amendment No. 71 to Clause 8, is an attempt to simplify the meaning of ““local authority””. If that were taken to mean the ““local planning authority””, the question of which authority was relevant for any given development would be straightforward. I hope that the Minister will take these amendments away for consideration and/or come back to the House with improvements to Clauses 7 and 8. I beg to move.