---

Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (England) Regulations 2006

I am grateful to the Minister for his full response. He said I was nit-picking, but it has given us an opportunity to debate something important and, obviously, regulations which we support. Perhaps I should keep a list of how many times the Minister has to apologise for things going wrong in his department, but we will let that one pass. I certainly never suggested, as he well knows, that it was a contributor to Defra’s funding issues. I totally accept that. I am grateful that the Minister updated us on how Defra has gone about putting it on the newsletter, along with the two other organisations. When he hopes that Natural England will deal with it with a light touch—we have not had anybody apply, but let us say that it is a problem in future—can the Minister clarify further whether Natural England will be the last port of call, or will the farmer or land manager held to account have any redress, either through the department or Natural England? I am always uneasy about something that makes somebody guilty unless you can prove that they are innocent. Here we are again, doing just that.