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Commons Bill [HL]

I only hope that when the noble Earl was a Minister some years ago no one ever asked him a question like that. So far as Clause 5 is concerned, Epping Forest and certain other urban commons were excluded from registration under the 1965 Act because they were already regulated under local Acts or schemes, rights of common were no longer being exercised and the extent of the common land was well defined. Open land in the Forest of Dean on the other hand is owned by the Crown and managed by the Forestry Commissioners. The Crown’s position is that the land is not subject to rights of common. So subsection (3), which repeats a similarly worded provision in the 1965 Act, is therefore for the avoidance of doubt.