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Planning Bill

My Lords, there is a major issue other than public confidence: making sure that evidence is tested. The examining authority must have all the tools necessary, whether directly or indirectly, to ensure that points are made in a way that it can understand and on which it can act where appropriate. The testing of evidence is central to the amendment to which I spoke—I may even have moved it—in Committee and which is here again as Amendment No. 92, in my name and those of my noble friend Lord Greaves and, gratifyingly, the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews. I am sorry—well, not that sorry—that we got there before her. I will not speak to the amendment at any greater length, because the Minister may well have her own explanation and I do not want to steal her thunder. I have probably achieved what I wanted. On government Amendment No. 94, is it anticipated, as I read it, that there will be just one person who is the source of legal advice? There are two issues: general legal advice to the commission and assistance to the examining authority in dealing with a particular application. I want to be certain that both are covered by the amendment and not just the first. I suspect that a single individual would not be able to cope. Indeed, a single individual at the level that one wants would not necessarily be available. One wants advocates with great experience of this sort of job, but such individuals may not want to take a full-time appointment with public sector pay. We must allow the commission to cherry pick from the range of talent at the Bar. I became a little uncertain about this as I read the amendment and was not wholly sure.