HL Deb 15 July 1991 vol 531 cc11-3

3.7 p.m.

The Chairman of Committees (Lord Aberdare)

My Lords, I beg to move the first Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper. This Motion gives effect to certain recommendations of the Joint Committee on Private Bill procedure which reported in July 1988. That committee recommended that each House should incorporate an environmental impact assessment into Private Bill procedure by making new standing orders for Bills which authorise the carrying out of works.

The Joint Committee also recommended that promoters of Private Bills should be required by standing order to deposit and advertise with their Bills an explanatory memorandum setting out in plain language the effect of the Bill and of its clauses. The necessary amendments to standing orders were agreed by another place in March and May of this year and now come before your Lordships for approval. If your Lordships approve the Motion, the amended standing orders will take effect from the beginning of the next Session of Parliament. I also propose, if the House agrees to this Motion, to have all the private business standing orders edited and reprinted as amended. I hope your Lordships will welcome this proposed new edition of the private business standing orders. It will be the first comprehensive reprint since 1982.

Finally, I take this opportunity to thank those Members of the House who offer their services on Select Committees on opposed Private Bills. That work is an essential function of the House and is quasi-judicial in nature. It can be onerous and time consuming work. I am grateful to those noble Lords who offer to serve on those Select Committees and have done so this Session.

Moved, That with effect from the beginning of the next parliamentary session the standing orders relating to private business be amended as follows—

After Standing Order 27, insert the following new Standing Order— ("27A—(1) Subject to paragraph (8) below, in the case of a Bill authorising the carrying out of works the nature and extent of which are specified in the Bill on land so specified. there shall be deposited on or before 4th December in the Private Bill Office and at the Public Departments at which copies of the Bill are required to be deposited under Standing Order 39, either—

  1. (a) a copy or copies (as specified by paragraph (2) below) of an environmental statement containing, in relation to the works authorised by the Bill, the information set out in Schedule 3 to the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988 (referred to below as "Schedule 3") or such of that information as the Secretary of State may in any particular case direct, or
  2. (b) a copy or copies (as so specified) of a direction by the Secretary of State that no such statement is necessary in relation to the works authorised by the Bill.
(2) The number of copies required to be deposited under paragraph (1) (a) or (b) above shall be three in the case of a deposit at the Department of the Environment and one in any other case. (3) Where any such works authorised by a Bill relate to two or more distinct projects each project may be treated separately for the purposes of paragraph (1) above; and the references in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of that paragraph to the works authorised by the Bill shall accordingly be construed, where the paragraph applies separately to each project, as references to the works comprised in that project. (4) Notwithstanding any direction given as mentioned in paragraph (1) (a) above, any environmental statement of which copies are deposited under this Order shall contain the summary (referred to below as "the non-technical summary") required by paragraph (2) (e) and, where material, paragraph 4 of Schedule 3. (5) Where the Secretary of State has given a direction as mentioned in paragraph (1) (a) above, a copy of the direction shall be deposited with every copy of the environmental statement deposited under this Order; and every copy of a direction so deposited or deposited under paragraph (1) (b) above shall be accompanied by a statement by the Secretary of State of his reasons for giving the direction. (6) Copies of every environmental statement deposited under this Order shall be made available for inspection, and for sale at a reasonable price, on and after 4th December, at the offices at which copies of the Bill are required to he made available under Standing Order 4A; and there shall also be made available separately on and after that date at those offices, for inspection and for sale at a reasonable price, copies of the non-technical summary. (7) The reference to Schedule 3 in this Order is a reference to that Schedule as amended from time to time and includes a reference to the corresponding provision of any regulations which re-enact the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988, with or without amendment; and references to particular paragraphs of Schedule 3 shall be construed accordingly. (8) This Order does not require the deposit of copies of an environmental statement in relation to any works for which planning permission has been granted.")

Standing Order 38, line 4, at end insert— ("( 1A) There shall be attached to every copy of a Bill—

  1. (a) delivered under this Standing Order,
  2. (b) deposited, delivered or sent under any of the Standing Orders following this Order,
  3. (c) made available for inspection and sale under Standing Order 4A,
a printed memorandum describing the Bill generally and, subject to paragraph (1B) below, every clause in the Bill. (1B) Related clauses may be dealt with together in the memorandum and it shall not be necessary to describe clauses providing only for the short title, commencement, interpretation, extent or costs of promotion of the Bill.").—(The Chairman of Committees.)

Lord Shackleton

My Lords, your Lordships should be grateful to the noble Lord for that explanation. This is an important procedure. The Joint Committee's report was published over two years ago. It has taken quite a long time for it to come into effect. The proposal reflects the recommendation set out in paragraph 40—or perhaps it was paragraph 80—of the report.

We do not often have an opportunity to consider our procedure, and I should like to ask some questions. First, why does the Secretary of State have power to rule that the environmental statement should not be deposited? Secondly, it is stated that: This Order does not require the deposit of copies of an environmental statement in relation to any works for which planning permission has been granted". I fully appreciate that if planning permission has been granted in a sense it is unnecessary to publish it, but it would be useful to colleagues and to the general public who want to know what the environmental statement says. Finally, why is it Standing Order 27A? Why is it not Standing Order 28, since there is a gap in the standing orders?

The Chairman of Committees

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for those penetrating questions. Perhaps I may congratulate him on his 80th birthday.

Noble Lords

Hear, hear!

The Chairman of Committees

My Lords, in answer to the noble Lord's first question, the Secretary of State can give a direction that no such statement is necessary if, in his opinion, the works involved are not of sufficient importance to have any significant environmental effect. However, as the noble Lord will see from paragraph (5), if he does so he has to give reasons.

As regards planning permission, the object of this standing order is to extend to Private Bills the arrangements under the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988 which now apply in the case of planning permission.

The number 27A will disappear when we re-edit the standing orders.

On Question, Motion agreed to.