Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of registration anomalies relating to common land; and what steps they are taking to rectify them.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government recognises that there are registration anomalies relating to common land arising from the former Commons Registration Act 1965. These include issues such as incorrectly drawn boundaries, buildings mistakenly included within registered commons, and land recorded that did not meet the legal definition of common land. Schedule 2 of the Commons Act 2006 provides mechanisms to correct such historic registration errors.

To support this process, and as part of the partial implementation of Part 1 of the Commons Act 2006, the Government has provided grant funding to a limited number of local authorities to undertake this work. Funding was initially made available to seven “pioneer” authorities from October 2008 and later extended to two additional authorities in 2014. These authorities—Cumberland Council and North Yorkshire Council—continue to receive funding to carry out their statutory duties under the Act. To date, they have been allocated £494,858 and £326,339 respectively, with funding scheduled to run until March 2027.

There are currently no plans to roll out Part 1 of the Commons Act 2006 more widely across England, but we will keep this under consideration.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether local authorities modifying or removing gas street lights are considering (1) conserving the UK's national heritage, and (2) their importance to the streetscape.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The government has set out its approach to planning for the conservation and enhancement of the historic environment in England in the National Planning Policy Framework. We have not made an assessment of how local planning authorities are taking this into account in reaching decisions on modifying or removing gas street lamps.

Planning in other parts of the UK is a matter for the devolved administrations.

Found: LORD INGLEWOOD: Can I ask a point of clarification, please?

Found: LORD INGLEWOOD: Could I just ask a question arising from that?

Found: of Craighead (Chair) Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville Lord Evans of Guisborough Lord Inglewood

Found: of Craighead (Chair) Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville Lord Evans of Guisborough Lord Inglewood

Found: of Craighead (Chair) Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville Lord Evans of Guisborough Lord Inglewood

Found: LORD INGLEWOOD: Right.

Found: of Craighead (Chair) Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville Lord Evans of Guisborough Lord Inglewood

Found: THE CHAIR: Lord Inglewood has a question. 68. LORD INGLEWOOD: Just a quick point, please.