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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

We have similar suspicions to those mentioned by the noble Duke, the Duke of Montrose. Management agreements are a good way forward and comprise a system that has been used time and again by English Nature. However, there is no doubt that land management is changing fast. For example, we have just moved from one system of farm payments to another. There is no doubt that there is a wish to bring all our SSSIs up to a much more favourable condition more quickly. Natural England will be absolutely out to prove itself—I very much hope that it does—in a fairly short time, so I imagine that it will be keen on making and keeping the management agreements. That is why it is particularly important that we get them right. Amendment No. 160 would ensure that all the agreements should be,"““subject to an appropriate code of practice drawn up by the Secretary of State””." English Nature assures me that there is already such a code and that therefore the amendment is unnecessary, which is no doubt what the Minister will say. However, that code was drawn up for the much narrower purposes of English Nature. We have established this evening that Natural England will have some much wider purposes; even if Clause 2 ends up being amended slightly, Natural England’s purposes will still go much wider than English Nature’s. Therefore, I cannot believe that a code of practice drawn up for English Nature will be suitable in its entirety for Natural England, which will address some very different issues. Amendment No. 161 would delete paragraph (f). That paragraph, which the noble Duke also did not like, is so wide that it could provide for management agreements to be made for absolutely anything. At this stage, the amendment to delete it is a probing amendment, but of course I reserve the right to view the paragraph with even more disfavour if the Minister does not give a fairly rigorous reply.