Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010

I declare an interest as a member of the all-party minerals group. I agree with every word that the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, said; he has obviously been approached in the same way that I was about this matter. I also attended the meeting of the all-party group where the issue was discussed by people directly involved in mineral recovery and operations. The china clay industry, in particular, was mentioned and it is the most adversely affected. As a parliamentary candidate more than 30 years ago, I visited the china clay industry in Cornwall. At that time china clay was for producing ceramics—that is, fine china. That has changed dramatically over the years and the china clay industry now plays an important role in the manufacturing of paint; the processing of paper—it is one of the biggest fillers in paper; the processing and manufacturing of rubber and plastics for the automobile industry; ceramics, which are still produced; and pharmaceuticals. Some of these are very important to our economy. To damage anything which is producing, for example, parts in the form of plastics for the automobile industry, is absolutely short-sighted. Why should we throw away an industry that we are happy with and is producing good money for this country, to force its products to be made in some other country that does not comply with any of these regulations? As the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, has mentioned, Germany and Sweden have already decided that the existing regulations are enough and they do not need them. It is very worrying. I also agree with the noble Lord that the measure would not protect the environment and health. It would have a damaging effect in many cases, in particular because there is no right of appeal. If a right of appeal was written into this directive, it would make a vast difference and would mean that the mineral industry would have a fair opportunity. At the moment its only option would be to go to judicial review, which is very costly and might not be effective. It is only just that there should be a right of appeal. I present this today and I depend on the Minister’s answer. Unless the Government can see their way to suggesting something like this, I may wait until the regulations are put before the full House and raise an objection at that time.