Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

I do not want to push the question of the timescale too far because I know that people are busy and the Government have to do many things, but it was 20 months between the adoption of the directive and the issue of the draft regulations, which seems a long time, and it was 11 months from the closure of the consultation period to us meeting here today and debating the laying of the regulations before Parliament. I merely make the point that these things could be speeded up. I do not want to push it too far because I agree that getting it right is better than necessarily meeting an arbitrary deadline. I believe that is true in everything except elections, where you have to meet the deadline; you have no choice. I think the Minister is right about the Environment Agency—I do not disagree with him about that—but the question I asked was what were the reasons for people thinking that the mineral planning authorities would be a better option. I do not know if he has the answer to that today or whether he will write to me.