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Commons Bill [HL]

The amendment would mean that only commons registration authorities could be given a power to set their own fees for applications. Part 1 provides for applications to be made for various purposes in order that the registers of common land and town and village greens are kept up to date and reflect changes to the matters registered. Although most such applications must be made to the commons registration authority, applications for deregistration and exchange of land under Clauses 15 and 16 must be made instead to the national authority—the Secretary of State or the National Assembly. Clause 23 provides for powers to regulate applications made to both the commons registration authority and the national authority. Thus, in subsection (2)(d), reference is made to the person to whom application is made, rather than to the commons registration authority. ““Person”” in that context means the registration authority, the Secretary of State or the National Assembly. In line with our policy to let local authorities get on with managing their own affairs, the powers in subsection (2)(d) include the possibility of enabling the registration authority to set its own fees, although we expect regulations to require fees to be set no higher than the cost of recovery. In relation to applications to the national authority, there would be no point in regulations enabling the national authority to set its own fee, because the regulations are actually made by that national authority. The amendment does not in practice constrain any powers to make regulations, but does introduce a modest grammatical difficulty into the text. That is because the provision would refer to the fee being determined by the commons registration authority to which the application is made, whereas the Secretary of State or the Assembly may be the recipient of the application. The noble Baroness also raised the issue of committee members. Yesterday, she was concerned that Clauses 15 and 16 would reduce the ability of landowners to apply for exchanges in private interest. Surely she would expect such applications to be paid for by the applicant rather than publicly. We do not expect that fees should be payable for applications in the public interest, such as applications to register greens. Where the benefit from an application would be purely private, we envisage an appropriate fee being payable. I hope that I have answered the points raised. I will read the noble Baroness’s questions and my answer carefully and check that I have covered them all. References to Powys are coming so often that I feel that I ought to declare an interest as a former chair of the Association of County Councils, which included Powys. I recollect the independent nature of Powys County Council. We have had examples from Members of the Committee with much better knowledge of Powys than me, but I reassure them that Powys is extremely independent and may not be typical.