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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

Liberal Democrat Members also support the amendments—consensus is clearly breaking out—and I join the Minister and the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice) in stating that the Lords have done an excellent job. Lords amendment No. 1 is particularly welcome, because it brings consultation with local communities into the general purpose of the Bill. We would have liked climate change to have been included, too, but we understand that the commitment to consultation is worthwhile. Similarly, we agree on the issue of the elimination of compulsory purchase. As we said on Second Reading and on Report, the provision on cross-departmental rural proofing is a welcome addition. I echo the view expressed on those occasions and by my noble Friends in the Lords that the abolition of Post Office card accounts by the Department for Work and Pensions is a classic example of a failure to rural proof policy, and the provision may help to rectify such errors. We certainly want the commission for rural communities to perform that role across the spectrum of legislation that may affect rural communities. The licensing laws provide another obvious such example, because they may require small shops that trade the occasional bottle of sherry as a convenience for elderly villagers to acquire a department to fill in new paperwork, so that is another example in which a little bit of rural proofing might have come in handy. In general, we feel comfortable about the amendments, and we propose to support them. Lords amendment agreed to. Lords amendments Nos. 2 and 3 agreed to.