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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply and for the encouragement, as I see it, to pursue some of these issues through a different mechanism. He is right that this will probably no longer be the mechanism through which to pursue them. I recognise that the £4.5 million for NERC that comes from Defra is only about 50 per cent of its funding and that £7 million of the funding comes from other sources and other departments. There is a very real issue concerning both the external funding, which, as the noble Lord said, is diminishing, and the fact that half of the funding of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology comes from external sources. I do not think that the publicity that has taken place will be helping the case; nevertheless, it is something of which the council needs to be aware. I am fundamentally concerned about this issue. From what I can gather from its website and from historical research, the council seems to be responsible to Parliament, but at the moment I cannot understand what form that responsibility takes and I will pursue it through other, possibly more appropriate, means. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 56 not moved.] Clause 4 [Advice]: [Amendments Nos. 57 to 63 not moved.] Clause 5 [Carrying out proposals etc.]: [Amendment No. 64 not moved.] Clause 6 [Financial and other assistance]: [Amendment No. 65 not moved.] Clause 7 [Management agreements]: [Amendments Nos. 66 to 69 not moved.] Clause 8 [Experimental schemes]: [Amendments Nos. 70 and 71 not moved.]