§ Mr. Joplingasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many objections 508W are still outstanding following the provisions of the Commons Registration Act; how many have been settled in the last year; when he expects that they will all be settled; and when he envisages that it will be possible to propose the second stage of the legislation proposed by the Royal Commission on Common Land.
§ Mr. Oakes564 disputes were determined by the Commons Commissioners in the year ending 31st January 1975. How long it will take the commissioners to complete their task will depend,inter alia, on the number of further commissioners who can be recruited and on the number of disputes still to be referred by the county councils, from which I am awaiting up to date information. I will write to the hon. Member.
Preliminary work on further legislation, to include provision for better management, improvement and protection of common land, is already in hand and we shall in due course be consulting all the relevant interests. It is, however, too soon to forecast when such legislation might be ready.