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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

I am grateful to the noble Viscount for raising that issue. I think that I said in my speech—he may have missed this—that there have been cases where local authorities have taken so long that they have actually gone outside the period allowed. That is of course neither acceptable nor fair to claimants, whether they are justified or not. In any event, these things seem to take a long time and, standing here, I have no answer as to what we can do. However, I would welcome the chance of writing to the noble Viscount when I have had a chance to consider what the possibilities are for moving local authorities forward in this regard—for they have many different responsibilities. One reason that we have a difference of opinion on the date when extinguishment should begin, as he mentioned, is that local authorities have taken so long to deal with those issues.