HC Deb 23 March 1983 vol 39 c964
Sir George Young

I beg to move amendment No. 42, in page 23, line 38, leave out 'provision of Part II of the 1936 Act' and insert 'enactment'.

Mr. Speaker

With this it will be convenient to take Government amendments Nos. 43 and 44.

Sir George Young

Government amendments Nos. 42, 43 and 44 are drafting amendments.

An important aspect of the present building control system, and one that will continue to be important under the new private certification proposals, is the group of controls that are outside the building regulations themselves but whose operation is triggered by the depositing of plans for building regulations approval. These controls are exercised by local authorities, and are generally known as the linked powers. They deal with such matters as building in short-lived materials and building over sewers.

Under private certification these powers will remain with the local authority, and it is therefore important to ensure that there is a satisfactory mechanism for triggering them in the case of privately certified developments, where the local authority will not get plans deposited with it in the ordinary way.

The Bill as introduced was defective in this respect, and these amendments put that right. The amendments will ensure that the initial notices served by private certifiers will be accompanied by all the information that authorities need to operate all the relevant linked powers, including those linked powers in local Acts, such as the Cumbria Act 1982, which allow conditional approval of plans to ensure the safety of parking places in buildings. Local authorities will be able to impose conditions on developments using the powers in their own Acts or in the general enactments, just as they can now under the present system.

The first two amendments substitute the term "enactment" for the reference to part II of the 1936 Act, and amendment No. 44 defines the meaning of "enactment" as including local Acts.

Amendment agreed to.

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