Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

Since I entered the House, we have passed a number of Bills that require decisions to be notified to the public by advertising them in newspapers, local newspapers and gazettes, and various combinations of those. In the past Session alone, the Planning Bill, the Local Transport Bill and the Crossrail Bill all contained such provisions. They have a long history, and hundreds, if not thousands, of these provisions are on the statute book. The noble Earl, Lord Attlee, took the matter up on the Local Transport Bill, and the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin of Roding, tabled an amendment to the Planning Bill. In each case, they wanted to extend the duty to include talking newspapers so that blind people and others who are print-handicapped can engage as other citizens do. Extending duties to improve the access of these groups to information about legislation is important enough but there is a wider point still here. Primary legislation that requires notices to be published in newspapers does not just result in inaccessibility; it is also rigid, expensive and out of date, and it does not work. Very rarely do we specify this level of detail in primary legislation. In this case, we do it only out of habit or because we think that no better alternative is available, but it is. Technology has moved on and so should we, but we cannot do that if we keep legislating in this way. The Government have looked at this matter and have come up with some startling information. Tens of thousands of these notices are published each year. If more modern means of communication were used, the savings could be as much as £30 million. More than half of notices are about local planning matters—one area in which people are most active in local democracy. In the modern world, many people expect to be able to go to a website and find the details of planning applications that might affect them—not just council websites but independent websites too. Yet we continue to pass laws that do not encourage that kind of progress. Camden council did a survey to discover how its citizens found out about planning applications. Press notices reached only 1.4 per cent of respondents; they simply do not justify the money spent on them. There are three things we need to do. We need to stop passing these types of provisions and come up with a more modern system. Over time, we need to go back and update existing law to take advantage of the new system, perhaps starting with the quick win of planning notices. This amendment gives the Government the chance to do that by requiring the Secretary of State to make new regulations for the publication of statutory notices. The regulations should take into account how to promote public involvement in decisions most effectively in a way that minimises the burden on public authorities, is accessible to disabled people and can be used by third parties. Electronic publication in some standard format should be a basic requirement. Beyond that, the regulations could lay down a simple framework that would leave councils with maximum flexibility plus some more extensive notification requirements to ensure that genuine efforts at consultation take place. The details can be worked out in time, but we need to start the ball rolling. Local authorities want the present system changed. Blind and partially sighted people need it changed. The arrival of the internet age suggests that it is now time to act.