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Planning Bill

moved Amendment No. 42: 42: Clause 5, page 3, line 9, at end insert— ““( ) A statement issued before 1st January 2006 may not be designated as a national policy statement for the purposes of this Act.”” The noble Lord said: I can deal with this amendment briefly. It concerns an anxiety expressed by local government, and it is right that the matter should be aired in the Committee. Our suggestion that the Government should not designate as a national policy statement a statement made before the date specified in the amendment would avoid any temptation for them to avoid all the processes required when putting forward a new national policy statement. We have suggested that statements made before that date two years ago must be presented as new national policy statements and, therefore, they would be subject to a full review, to include sustainability appraisal and full consultation, before they can be designated. Perhaps the noble Baroness can allay my anxieties, but the Bill seems to allow the Secretary of State to designate existing policy statements, however old they may be, as national policy statements without the need for further appraisal. That cannot be right. I have seen statements on planning applications which were in an entirely different form from what we are now led to believe will be the form of a national policy statement under the Bill. I hope that the noble Baroness can express her views. Other amendments relating to Clause 12 are grouped with this one. I will leave it to the noble Lords who have tabled then to speak to them and shall not attempt to introduce other arguments at this stage. I am merely concerned about the use or, I suspect, the misuse of very old, existing policy statements. I beg to move.