Localism Bill

My Lords, we have had an extremely good debate. I am very grateful indeed to my noble friend for his readiness to accept the need to re-examine the question of the transition and to make sure that the Bill is appropriate now that major decisions on infrastructure are going to be taken by the Secretary of State. That is the difference. On the question of the approval of the national policy statements, I moved an amendment in 2008 to say that they should be not just scrutinised but approved. Therefore, I agree very much with the proposal in this Bill that the national policy statements should be approved. Indeed, as the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley said, the energy statements were approved earlier this week. The difficulty that was put to me at the time was: if you are going to have both Houses approving, what happens if one says one thing and one says the other? The argument could be that you then have some sort of ping-pong or something, but it is not legislation—that is the point that my noble friend has made. Therefore, although I have much sympathy with what the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, said, I did not put my name to his amendments because I did not think that they were workable. My noble friend on the Front Bench has given a very good explanation of that. I am grateful to him for what he said and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 166D withdrawn. Amendment 166E not moved. Amendment 166F had been withdrawn from the Marshalled List. Amendments 166G to 166T not moved. Schedule 13 agreed. Clause 113 : Transitional provision in connection with abolition Clause 113 : Transitional provision in connection with abolition Amendment 166U not moved. Clause 113 agreed. Clause 114 : National policy statements Clause 114 : National policy statements Amendments 166UZA to 166V not moved. Clause 114 agreed. Amendment 166VZA to 166VZC not moved. Clause 115 : Power to alter effect of requirement for development consent on other consent regimes Amendments 166VA to 166VC Clause 115 : Power to alter effect of requirement for development consent on other consent regimes Amendments 166VA to 166VC Moved by