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'(1A) Under this section an entitled person may exclude or restrict access by virtue of section 2(1) to any land for no more than 40 days in any calendar year.'.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: Amendment No. 10, in page 12, line 7, leave out subsection (2).
Amendment No. 12, in page 12, line 14, leave out subsection (4).
Amendment No. 31, in page 12, line 15, at end add
'(which may not include more than four Saturdays and four Sundays)'.
Amendment No. 13, in page 12, line 18, leave out from "land" to second "the" in line 19.
Amendment No. 14, in page 12, line 20, leave out "may".
Amendment No. 15, in page 12, line 22, leave out "twenty-eight" and insert "40".
Amendment No. 16, in page 12 line 23, leave out "not" and insert "only".
Amendment No. 17, in page 12, line 24, at end insert--
'days from Monday to Saturday but excluding--'.
Amendment No. 18, in page 12, line 25, leave out paragraph (a).
Amendment No. 98, in clause 22, page 13, line 13, at end insert--
'( ) In this section "land management" and "management of the land" means--
(a) any activity associated with agriculture or forestry;
(b) any activity to improve or maintain habitat for wildlife and biodiversity;
(c) any activity to maintain, improve or use sporting opportunities on the land;
(d) pest control; or
(e) any other activity undertaken by or on behalf of the owner in furtherance of earning an income from the land.'.
Government amendments Nos. 152, 153, 166, 167, 186 and 188.
Mr. Paice: This is a large group, and the amendments in my name and those of my colleagues address closely related issues that go to the heart of the Bill. Amendment No. 11 seeks to change from 28 to 40 the number of days on which landowners or others with an interest can close off land without having to give reasons or make an application. Amendments Nos. 16 to 18 are designed to deal with weekends and bank holidays, and I shall return to those issues. Amendment No. 98 seeks to create a definition for the term "land management", following discussions in Committee.
9 pm
I remind the Minister of the Government's policy towards land use, and agriculture in particular. The action plan for farming was published by no less a body than No. 10 Downing street, following the so-called agricultural summit on 30 March. Let me quote:
- We all want agriculture to be prosperous, forward-looking and sustainable. It must be competitive, and flexible enough to respond quickly and effectively to market changes and consumer needs. The entrepreneurial family farm will continue to thrive--but it will often be supported by adding value to farm products or income from non-farming activity. In many more areas farmers will look to turn a positive approach to the environment to their own economic advantage.
Let us look at the types of activities that may take place on open country, virtually all of which is being farmed or used for one purpose or another. There are many. Perhaps the commonest agricultural activity is sheep farming. Lambing takes place on a hill or on lower land, but it may be on land that is classified as open country. The period involved can be six weeks or so, which is 42 days a year. There is the requirement to gather sheep for dipping, testing, shearing and various other things. Gathering sheep can be a day-long activity on a hill. Often, farmers band together to help each other. They can be at it several days on the trot, gathering each other's flocks in. It can take several days of the year.
The last thing that anyone wants when attempting to gather stock is someone appearing over the brow of a hill just when they think they have the stock--the sheep--all together and going in the right direction; the animals will promptly turn tail and flee the other way. It is not a matter of there being any danger to anyone. Problems and difficulties may arise for the person who is seeking to earn a living from the land.
The intention of the amendments is to extend the 28 days to 40. As well as conventional farming, there is, as we discussed in Committee, use of the land for shooting
of all sorts of game birds and deer, for deer stalking and deer culling. There is a whole range of activities that cannot be done within 28 days.
Mr. Simon Thomas: I sense that the hon. Gentleman is moving away from sheep farming. Before he leaves the subject of sheep completely, will he reflect on the needs of markets; on the way in which farmers have been encouraged to diversify and to sell their produce differently; and on the way in which the lambing season has changed from a very short period in the early spring to one that is spread out over several weeks? The 28 days does not suit the modern way in which lambing is done in hill farms.
Mr. Paice: The hon. Gentleman is entirely right. As his colleague, the right hon. Member for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley), knows, I had some knowledge of that area--I still do, I hasten to say. It is where I first met the right hon. Gentleman a long while ago. I am aware of how sheep farming has changed over the years; I was a sheep farmer myself, albeit on different terrain. The situation with regard to lambing periods is as the hon. Gentleman has said. The amendment will be crucial if farmers are to respond, as the Government say they should, to changing customer needs and market requirements.
Mr. Bennett: On that point, can the hon. Gentleman explain why someone should be restricted from access during a lambing period? In what way does the individual walker--as opposed to someone with a dog--interfere, or make it difficult for lambing to take place?
Mr. Paice: Obviously an individual walker does not make it difficult for lambing to occur. As the hon. Gentleman knows, lambing is a natural event that cannot be stopped once it has started--no one has found a way of stopping it yet. However, if people disturb sheep at lambing time, it can cause serious problems of mis-mothering, where ewes leave lambs which have just been dropped and which may still be covered in placenta waiting for their mothers to lick them clean. Ewes can be very easily frightened away and may not return in time to assist their lambs before they suffocate in their cowl.
Any sheep farmer could tell the hon. Gentleman of a raft of problems that could be caused by unnecessary disturbance at lambing time, and those problems can occur regardless of whether ewes are lambing on an open hill or in a shed. Shepherding skills are crucial at that time, when the last thing farmers need is someone creating a disturbance.
We also have to consider land management issues, and I shall address them in detail in a moment. My point for the moment is that various land management activities occur in open country and are not compatible with open access. I contend that those events require much longer than 28 days, which is why we propose providing for 40 days.
In Committee, the Minister told us that he believed that 28 days was sufficient because of a subsequent clause on land management, which would cover a vast range of activities. Accordingly, we have tabled amendment No. 98, to which I shall return in a moment. The point, however, is that we have to ensure that the Bill is clear.
In Committee, the Minister said:
- Nothing that we propose to do to limit the days when landowners can automatically close their land will affect their right to apply to the countryside bodies or national park authorities for further closures on any day of the year, where they have legitimate reasons for doing so, for example for land management.
- It is not the case that the Bill would prevent shooting on Saturdays.--[Official Report, Standing Committee B, 2 May 2000; c. 476.]
The major problem in preventing people from closing off land at weekends is that it removes from those who have an interest in the land a major opportunity to use it for personal, social or, more important, commercial purposes. I come back to the quotation from the action plan for farming that I gave at the beginning of my speech. If landowners are to increase their non-farming income, they will have to find ways of generating an income.
Hills, for example, can be used for paragliding, hang-gliding and similar activities. Although those activities may be dangerous, landowners can charge people to use their land not only to participate in those activities, but to be spectators of them. The Bill, however, would prevent landowners from closing off that land at weekends, which is the prime time for such activities. The Government are therefore preventing landowners from gaining that income.
In Committee, the Minister told us on countless occasions that he did not believe that the Bill increased the costs to landowners. The Bill may not add directly to landowners' costs, but the effect will be the same if it dramatically reduces their chance of earning an income from the land. That is why the amendments are crucial.
I turn to the issue of closing land on Saturdays and Sundays. Amendment No. 16 would create the opportunity of closing on either Saturday or Sunday, although not necessarily both. Amendments Nos. 17 and 18 are designed to allow Saturdays not to be closed. So the Minister has a choice--in Committee we used the term "a menu of choice". It is important that landowners should be allowed to use their land at weekends if that is the most appropriate time for shooting, hang-gliding or parascending--or, indeed, for the lambing to which I referred earlier.
As was said in Committee and does not need repeating in the House, sheep do not know when it is Saturday, Sunday or a bank holiday and they will not stop lambing. The Bill should not prevent landowners who have a justifiable reason for closing their land from doing so on a Saturday or a Sunday--particularly on Saturday, which is a key day for people to pay for leisure activities that are part of the diversification of land use that the Government wish to encourage.
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