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Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am sure that I speak for my noble friend Lord Tyler, who will be very pleased with Amendment No. 113, particularly as it relates to the situation on Dartmoor, about which he has made a number of telling points. We are very pleased that the Government have agreed with the gist of his argument. We were concerned that the situation in Cumbria is very different from that in other parts of the United Kingdom. We were concerned that accepting what happens in Cumbria with regard to severance as a generality vis-à-vis other parts of the United Kingdom would cause considerable problems with severance. Now that subsidiarity is very much to the fore, as the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, has said, it is clear that the situation in Cumbria can be accepted as a matter for Cumbria, and the situation in the rest of England and Wales can be treated slightly differently. We are very pleased that a clear statement was made at the beginning of the Bill that severance would be barred. We do not see that the exceptions made in these amendments will substantially alter the principles in the Bill. Therefore, we accept what is proposed.