---

Planning and Energy Bill

I beg to move amendment No. 12, page 2, line 26, at end add— ‘(3) This Act shall come into force on such date as the Secretary of State shall appoint.’. This amendment is an attempt to plug a gap in the Bill, which contains no commencement provision other than the general implication that it would come into effect. If we are to give local authorities these new discretions and powers, as I hope we will, we need to allow some gearing up time so that they can get ready to exercise them. Some local authorities may be advanced in the preparation of their local plans, but it would be wrong simply to leave the matter in the air. It is not uncommon for Bills to have commencement clauses that give discretion to the Secretary of State to decide when they should come into force through the normal process of subordinate legislation, and that would be appropriate in this case. I have drawn new clause 12 as tightly as possible in that respect by referring to ““such date as the Secretary of State shall appoint””. That means that the Secretary of State must appoint a date at some stage. We have discussed such clauses before on other Bills, and there is House of Lords authority on the difference between ““shall appoint”” and ““may appoint””. I know that, because I was involved in the case that decided it before I became a Member of Parliament. If the provision included the word ““may””, the Bill could remain on the shelf indefinitely. However, if it says ““shall””, the Secretary of State will have to do something and keep the matter under active review until the Bill is brought into effect.