Planning Bill

Similarly, my Amendments Nos. 295 to 297 relate to matters that have already been discussed. I shall not speak to them and the Minister need not respond to them. Amendment No. 303 may look as though it relates to the longish debate that we have just had, but it does not quite do so. It probes how the IPC is to take evidence for the purposes of Clause 101(4), (5) and (6), which are about the commission being satisfied that deciding an application in accordance with the relevant national policy statement would lead to the UK being in breach of its international obligations or a statutory duty or be otherwise unlawful. I know that these subsections were inserted after debate in the Commons. I do not challenge the underlying notions, but I am curious as to how the IPC will come to the necessary conclusions. That point applies to Amendments Nos. 303 and 305. My name is to Amendment No. 304 on climate change. I assume that the Government will deal with that when they consider the amendments which were covered in greater detail last week. Amendments Nos. 306 and 316 challenge the term ““both important and””. Amendment No. 306 would apply to Clause 101(2)(d), which refers to, "““matters which the Panel or Council thinks are both important and relevant to its decision””." Amendment No. 316 would apply to Clause 102(2)(c). The logical sequence is for the IPC to consider the relevance of a matter. In the context of the relevance, it then considers the importance, but that does not need to be said. One clearly has to have regard to the status of a particular issue. To word it this way around—to consider the importance first—is confusing and possibly misleading. It perhaps proposes a way of dealing with things with which I would not agree.