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Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am afraid to say that a shudder went through my mind when I heard the noble Lord, Lord Bach, use the words, ““no need to put this on the face of the Bill””. I think I said in Committee that I was heavily involved in the first Commons Registration Act 1965 when that went through another place. I remember vividly Mr John Mackie—the brother of our noble friend Lord Mackie of Benshie—who was then a junior Minister at Agriculture, endlessly tell us that there was no need to put various things on the face of the Bill. I especially remember a classic example when we suggested to him that in the Bill there ought to be a way of dealing with people who have common rights—to use the ancient French—san nombre. This meant they had unlimited rights to graze a fell, It was perfectly possible given those rights to put down an extremely extravagant figure. That is exactly what has happened in the mean time, which has caused so many of the difficulties creating the need for this Bill. At that time John Mackie said there was no need to put it in the Bill. As I raised in Committee, we had exactly the same concern over this issue of defining what common rights one had—whether it was grazing or pannage or some of the items on the long list. We were told again there was no need to put it on the face of the Bill. The experience since then has been that it ought to have been on the face of the Bill. Will the Minister, between now and Third Reading, think again about what the noble Lord, Lord Livsey, has said—