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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

In view of the hour, I shall do my best to be very brief. I declare the same interests as I declared at Second Reading in connection with specific wildlife trusts. I also serve as an officer of the all-party group on the matters with which this group of amendments is concerned. I declare not so much an interest as, in the light of the speech of my noble friend Lord Peel on his own amendment, a potential appearance on a charge sheet. My noble friend commented on past legislation. I should confess to the Committee that I served as the government Whip on the 1981 Bill. The Committee sat for 105 hours. It was not guillotined in any way and was staffed, on both sides, by MPs who were passionate about the subject. The principal Ministers on the Bill were my noble friends Lord King of Bridgwater and Lord Monro of Langholm. I would simply defend the enthusiasts who staffed both sides of the Committee. They were inevitably representative of that era in the views that they expressed but there was no question at all about the degree of commitment which they showed to the subject. I have taken an interest in more wildlife trusts than those where I have been resident or have represented as an elected representative in the other place. I am greatly encouraged by their advance across the country in the manner described by my noble friend Lord Peel. As a future mover of an amendment on Clause 40, to which he also referred, I strongly support my noble friend in his salience on these matters much earlier in the Bill.