---

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I shall also speak to Amendment 120. This is fairly straightforward and we can deal with it a bit quicker, I hope. It is about the wording that the Government want to use in this legislation about petitions that are a bit naughty or nasty and therefore will not be accepted. As the clause stands, a petition can be rejected as active—I am not sure why it happens at the active not the valid stage, but that is the argument that I was having 10 minutes ago—if it is, "““vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate””." This is partly to probe what is meant by ““otherwise inappropriate””, which seems vague and ambiguous wording. I am inserting as an alternative the words, "““calls for anything that is unlawful””." We had this debate on the e-petitions on Monday—or a similar debate—but there is a need for standard wording and understanding in the Bill over the reasons why petitions can be rejected. The Government may simply say that they can be rejected and leave it to the common sense of councils, but I do not imagine that that argument will get very far. I beg to move.