PLANNING PERMISSION FOR RELEVANT DEVELOPMENT (Hansard, 11 November 1975)

§ Mr. John Silkin
I beg to move, That this House does agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this we may discuss Lords Amendment No. 108.

§ Mr. Silkin
For the benefit of the right hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Page) it looks as if we are keeping up the pace.
Paragraph 7(1) provides that a notice that an authority does not intend to acquire land may be expressed subject to a condition. The kinds of conditions that may be imposed are set out in paragraph 8(1), the last condition (6) being any other condition to which the Secretary of State has given his consent. This has caused the difficulty. I agree it may have been drawn too widely. We have solved the problem by providing that the only other conditions allowable will be those specified by the Secretary of State in Regulations would be subject to the negative resolution procedure and any new conditions needed would therefore be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

§ Mr. Rossi
I am not clear how this meets the points we raised in Committee on this matter, when we understood that the Secretary of State would have power to give consent to particular conditions relating to particular matters affecting a particular property. Our objection in Committee was that anyone dealing with the land would not know whether the condition included by the local authority had received the consent of the Secretary of State, as is required by the clause. The private individual would have no means of knowing.
The Minister is suggesting that this could be overcome by the condition being specified in Regulations and the Regulations being published. They would then presumably be available for the individual concerned to see. He could check whether the consent had been given. I 1424 cannot see how the Secretary of State could come to the House to apply for Regulations, since we would have to consider whether to annul them. The Regulations will deal with a condition to be included by a specific local authority in a specific notice for a specific piece of land. The condition may be peculiar to the piece of land in question. I am not sure, therefore, how procedure related to regulations would help us in these circumstances.

§ Mr. John Silkin
We are dealing here with a reasonable attempt to solve a very difficult problem. It is the uncertainty problem which the hon. Member for Hornsey (Mr. Rossi) has put to us, not the situation itself. We are dealing with Any other condition to which the Secretary of State has given his consent. I accept that it might be uncertain to the recipient of the conditional notice whether the condition was one to which the Secretary of State had given his consent or whether it could be challenged as not being one of the permitted conditions.
Putting this in Regulations will provide the opportunity of seeing exactly to which conditions the Secretary of State will have given his consent, and the fact that this is subject to parliamentary scrutiny will enable the House to take up points as and when they arise.

§ Mr. Graham Page
It will not be easy to scrutinise the Regulations and say whether they are within the powers of the Secretary of State. I assume that the words "Any other condition" would be interpreted as ejusdem generis with the first five conditions. When the Statutory Instruments Committee decides whether the Regulations made under this provision are within the vires of the Secretary of State, it will not be easy for it to specify the limits to what can be done in Regulations. If "Any other conditions" are ejusdem generis with the first five conditions the Committee will have to interpret them within that limitation, I presume.

§ Mr. John Silkin
I have before me the Official Report of the Committee proceedings, where my hon. Friend said: The intention of the schedule is to enable the Secretary of State to give general consent, not consent on a particular case. It is not envisaged at all that the Secretary of 1425 State will exercise the provisions of the schedule on particular cases."—[Official Report, Standing Committee G, 1st July 1975; c. 1944.] Frankly, I do not think that would be considered ejusdem generis.

§ Mr. John Silkin
I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this amendment we may consider Lords Amendments Nos. 131, 132, 137, 138, 141, 142 and 144.

§ Mr. Silkin
All that the amendments do is to take account of the fact that the Local Land Charges Bill, at present before Parliament, will make certain changes to the procedures concerning local land charges registers, and that these changes will need to be reflected in the Community Land Bill.
Amendment No. 109 makes the changes needed in respect of notices served under the schedule. Amendments Nos. 131 and 132 make the necessary changes in respect of DNA resolutions. Amendments Nos. 137 and 138 do the same for notices by the Secretary of State in respect of DNAs. Amendments Nos. 141 and 142 deal with the notices required on the termination of a DNA. Amendment No. 144 deals with the transitional situation concerning DNA notices before the Local Land Charges Bill comes into force by replacing the existing provisions until then.