Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 17th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

My Lords, this is my first intervention today and, of course, I am speaking personally. I wholeheartedly support what the Government Whip said about this being Committee stage and how it should be conducted, but this is a big Bill and it needs proper scrutiny. As the Minister has told us today, there are lots of things still to clarify and many questions still to be answered. Some speakers may need reining in, and I am sure the House will support the Whips when they attempt to do that, but I put it on record that I thought the crude attack yesterday in Oral Questions was inappropriate and unhelpful.

I support most of the amendments in this group, particularly Amendments 286 and 300 and others that have been raised such as those by the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, a few moments ago. These all seek to introduce some quantification, comparison and accountability into the EDP process. There will always be a temptation for implementing bodies, be it Natural England or those that it subcontracts, to introduce subjectivity—or, shall we say, optimism—into their results and reporting. Openness with data and debate will be essential to enable candour, challenge and particularly third-party professional scrutiny. EDPs are a new adventure, and lessons will need to be learned early and fully. I therefore support, as Amendment 300 puts it,

“a high degree of certainty based on an objective assessment”.

I also support Amendment 264 in this group from the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, and, to save time, Amendment 275 in the next group from the noble Earl, Lord Russell. Both seek to introduce some discipline and accountability via mitigation hierarchy and a stepped approach.

Finally, I have two related questions for the Minister. Will there be an independent audit process of Natural England and EDPs—not just of their finances but of the outcomes and results? If so, who will select these auditors and evaluators?

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 290 in my name, which was tabled as Amendment 119 in the other place by my honourable friend Ellie Chowns. I agree with the noble Earl, Lord Russell, that the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, has clearly identified where this group has taken us, and we have heard powerful expositions from the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, and the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne.

This amendment specifically addresses European sites, European marine sites, European offshore marine sites and Ramsar sites, so we are talking about the overall improvement test, but in a limited subset. Again, we are talking about the nature of the overall improvement test.

These sites are, of course, hugely precious and terribly important, and Ramsar sites are described as internationally important places. Amendment 290 says that the Secretary of State has to be

“satisfied that there would be no adverse effect on the integrity of the relevant site”.

That is part 1 of the test. Paragraphs (ii) and (iii) state some offsetting allowances if there is no alternative and if appropriate measures are taken, but the amendment sets a very high standard for these terribly important places, which is crucial for them.

I note that in Monday’s debate, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, talked about how, under Clause 89, Ramsar sites were previously protected by guidance rather than legislation. This is indeed legislation, but if the test is not sufficiently strong then it is not any kind of protection at all. Also on Monday, the noble Baroness said that SSSIs have protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. I have not had time to really absorb what this morning’s letter says. It refers to that protection, but I would be interested to hear from the Minister on how that interacts with the changes that the Government have made and how Clause 55 works.

It is worth focusing for a second on what we are talking about. When I think of Ramsar, I always think of Rutland Water. I am sure that many noble Lords have visited it and seen the amazing birds at that site—I am looking at the noble Lord, Lord Randall. I also think of the Inner Thames Marshes SSSI, which is part of the Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve. I think of that because I was there in 2018 on Hen Harrier Day, when we had the wonderful and amazing pleasure of a marsh harrier swooping over to inspect our event for defending their cousins. I can remember the sense of wonder and amazement in the crowd, many of whom were local people. It is important to stress how important those SSSIs are to nature but also to local communities. We might think, “That will always be all right. That will always be protected”, but in the 1990s, the site was a candidate location for a Universal theme park, which, happily, was not built.

[Baroness Coffey (Con)]

My Lords, while the top twitcher in the House of Lords is undoubtedly my noble friend Lord Randall of Uxbridge—although there may be other candidates, I am prepared to admit —I live near the Minsmere Nature Reserve, so what the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, referred to about marsh harriers is truly extraordinary. I tend to see them in close proximity to Sizewell, which shows that there is an element of how we can all try to live together in that regard.

Amendment 244 gets to the kernel of the issue that we are addressing with the overall significant improvement test; I strongly support the noble Baroness’s amendment. Other noble Lords have made important points, including those made by my noble friend Lord Gascoigne.

The Government’s amendment is very cleverly written. There was a legal case with the last Administration, where ClientEarth, Friends of the Earth and the Good Law Project managed to find that the then Government had an unlawful climate change action plan, and they had to be pushed back on that. That is the element of hope value—not in terms of land, but in hoping that the EDP is, in effect, good enough. Assuming that everything will work was not good enough in that case.

If this provision goes into primary legislation in the way it is now, without further consideration of some of the other amendments that have been tabled by noble Lords, that will give the Government, frankly, a very good “get out of jail” card, because it is primary legislation and the courts will not be able to override it on the basis of the criteria being set out today. On Report, we should come back and consider with all noble Lords who have looked at this carefully how we try to make watertight what we want to do with the significant improvement test.

I will come back to the whole debate about what a Secretary of State is in the Bill, because I have tabled an appropriate amendment, which will be considered in a later group—I think in group 19 or 20—that will be started by the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone. There is something around this whole area that we are getting into—I am not going to stray into the mitigation hierarchy—that is about the environmental principles public duty that applies to Ministers. It does not apply to arm’s-length bodies; it applies to any policy considering legislation. It applies to any strategies and to any framework. But, critically, it does not apply in itself to any planning application consideration. So that is why we need to make sure that we get this bit of the Bill right.

As far as I am aware, although on GOV.UK it says that the environmental principles policy statement was under the last Administration, it should still be in force. I would like confirmation from the Minister that that is still the case. I point out to her that if it is not in force, the Government would be acting in an unlawful way. So in consideration of this, there may be further questions coming, whether through this or other legal routes, specifically about how, in constructing Part 3 of the Bill, the environmental principles policy has been applied to achieve the particular outcome that is desired and, potentially, about other aspects of how it is complying with the Environment Act in its own right.

It is worth us having some careful consideration before the next stage on what we all want the outcome to be. I am confident that the Government want, despite a lot of the speeches and rhetoric, to make sure that we have nature thriving.