---

Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

moved Amendment No. 338:"Page 32, line 21, leave out paragraph (d)." The noble Baroness said: In moving Amendment No. 338 I shall also speak to Amendment No. 339. Amendment No. 338 is a probing amendment because I am slightly confused by the Bill. Will the Minister give me an example of when a Minister could authorise, for example, person B to carry out a function which requires B’s consent before it can be carried out? The implication of the consent condition is that B’s role is passive—as, for example, when one of us signs a consent form for the carrying out of surgical procedure. I cannot think of a more practical example. Amendment No. 339 intends to discover which parties would make the payments; how those payments would be calculated or set; what payment conditions would be, for instance, within 60 days of invoice, or on the first day of each month, or by negative credit; whether there would be any uniformity in approach; whether each agreement would be liable to be quite different from any other; and, if so, how it would be done. Will the money for such payments come from existing departmental budgets or could this subsection be included in circumstances under Clause 98(b) and therefore be liable to be paid out of money provided by parliament? I beg to move.