---

Commons Councils (Standard Constitution) (England) Regulations 2010

We would expect the ballot to set up the council to follow democratic norms. The noble Lord should not be unduly anxious about the council going into secret session—it will not do any of those things. It is not a local authority, with direct responsibility to a wide range of electors. I accept entirely the noble Lord’s unexceptionable principles on how a local authority should act and why the rules should be clearly drawn when the council is engaged in confidential activity. There will not be much with a commons council which remotely approaches that, because it will not be a major employing authority with a disciplinary aspect and all those things which throw up unavoidable issues of confidentiality and require those rules. The commons council will after all be a small, consensual council of people working together. We are indicating only that, if someone has a direct financial interest in what is being discussed by the council, it is necessary that the interest be quantified in a certain way and that the individual concerned has rights. Therefore, I do not think that this is a great issue. The noble Baroness, Lady Byford, asked whether any person could call for a commons council to be set up. Anyone can ask the Secretary of State to set up a commons council but a request which comes from a person with a legal interest in the common, or a proper representative body of such a person, will carry greater weight than a request from anyone else. However, the Secretary of State cannot set up a council without first being confident that all interests have had the opportunity to express a view and that there is substantial support for it. Without substantial support it would not work. You could not set up a council of this kind without there being that degree of support.