COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 19 October 1981)

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 111 and 112. Amendment No. 112 is consequential on Amendment No. 111. Subsection (4) of Clause 47 provides that wherever in Part II an action is to be performed by, or in relation to, "the Ministers", which is a plural phrase, it may be performed by, or to, either of them separately. However, there is one exception. Subsection (4) excepts the case where the action consists of making a Moorland 619 Notification Order under Clause 40. In England, this can be done only by the Ministers jointly; that is, by the Secretary of State for the Environment jointly with the Minister of Agriculture.

Amendment No. 111 is designed to add another exception where in England the action must be joint. The "Sandford" clause of the Bill, the new clause which concerns duties of agriculture Ministers, applies the "Sandford" approach to national parks, but also enables the Ministers to apply it to other specified areas. When the Ministers do this Amendment No. 111 will require them to do it jointly. This is because we think that both these types of action under Part II of the Bill—deciding whether to impose compulsory notification on moorland farmers in a national park and deciding whether to apply the Sandford approach towards Ministry of Agriculture capital grants to areas outside national parks and sites of special scientific interest—ought to be taken jointly by the Ministers responsible both for the environment and for agriculture. Amendment No. 112 is consequential. I beg to move.