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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

My Lords, I shall speak very briefly and of course I speak in support of what my noble friend Lady Byford said from the Front Bench. I have only two things to say. The first is that the Minister made much at Report of the principle of fairness and the need to make allowance for when particular things had happened. I cannot help but remark that if the Government had acted earlier, we would not have quite the problem that we have today. Although the Minister is coming well out of today’s debate, he is coming well out of a bad situation and one that would have been improved—it is not his fault, as he was not the Minister at the time—if the Government had acted earlier. If they had done, we would not have as much of a backlog as we have. Secondly, the Minister will recall that I asked him on Report whether it was true that there had been a heavy concentration on Cheshire and Wiltshire. He was unable to answer on that occasion and I quite understand why, but I wonder whether he has the information now.