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Planning Bill

moved Amendment No. 405: 405: After Clause 170, insert the following new Clause— ““Grants for advice and assistance: Scotland (1) The Secretary of State may make grants for the purpose of assisting any person to provide advice and assistance in connection with any matter which is related to the application of this Act to Scotland. (2) The Secretary of State may, as respects any such grant, provide that it is to be subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary of State thinks appropriate.”” The noble Lord said: I shall be brief. Amendments Nos. 405 and 458 give the Secretary of State the power to make grants to assist with the provision of advice and assistance in connection with any matter that is related to the application of the Planning Bill to Scotland. The new clause inserted is equivalent to Clause 170 of the Bill, which relates to the giving of grants for advice and assistance in relation to projects in England and Wales. Clause 170 was included in the Bill so that grants could be given to bodies such as Planning Aid in connection with nationally significant infrastructure projects. There would be concerns about fairness if people in some parts of the UK had access to advice and assistance in connection with an application for development consent or a proposed national policy statement but people in other parts of the UK who were similarly affected did not. Amendments Nos. 405 and 458 resolve that problem. Amendment No. 456 relates to Schedule 12. The amendment modifies Clause 163(3) to (5) in so far as those subsections apply to Scotland. I beg to move.