3 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
| Date introduced to the House of Commons
(carried over and re-introduced)
Date introduced to the House of Lords
Current Bill Number
Previous Reports
| 4 December 2002
1 December 2003
10 December 2003
House of Lords 45
3rd and 8th
|
3.1 We commented on this Bill in our Eighth Report of this Session,
in relation to a new clause inserted during report stage in the
House of Lords. We received a response from Lord Rooker, the Minister
in charge of the Bill, on 24 March. We publish it as an Appendix
to this report.[11]
3.2 In his letter, the Minister explains the Government's
thinking in relation to the matters which we raised in our Eighth
Report. In relation to the grounds for issuing a temporary stop
notice, we accept that any use of the power to issue a notice
would have to be in accordance with Convention rights, by virtue
of section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998. We are glad to learn
that the guidance to local authorities will be revised to take
account of the new powers, and we note that the guidance emphasises
that relevant factors must be thoroughly assessed in each case
before a notice is issued (paragraph 6 of the Minister's letter)
and will be revised to require that the power to issue notices
requiring action is exercised in a reasonable and responsible
manner (paragraph 19). We note that the Government considers that
the need for urgent action when a temporary stop notice is issued
makes it proportionate to limit the range of people to whom the
notice must be served, in view of the facts that defences are
available, the notice would operate for only 28 days, the people
affected would have rights of appeal and access to judicial review,
and compensation would be payable if Convention rights are interfered
with unlawfully (paragraphs 7 to 11, 17 to 18, and 20 to 21 of
the Minister's letter). We accept that these factors are relevant
when deciding whether the provisions strike a fair balance between
the rights of the occupier of land and the general interest.
3.3 In our Eighth Report, we set out our reasons
for fearing that the Bill would violate the rights of gypsies
and travellers to respect for their homes and to be free of discrimination
in their enjoyment of their homes, under Article 8 of and Article
1 of Protocol No. 1 to the ECHR, because the Bill's provisions
on temporary stop notices treat caravan dwellers less favourably
than people living in built dwellings. In his letter, the Minister
accepts that this is so, and offers arguments to justify the difference
in treatment, particularly the fact that development controls
will have applied to buildings before their construction, while
caravans can be moved onto land easily without such prior controls,
and could be removed without ceasing to be homes (paragraphs 12,
13 and 22 of the letter). We do not find this convincing as a
justification for having different rules of land-use control.
However, the Minister's letter goes on to say that the Government
plans to make regulations, which would come into force before
the relevant provisions of the Bill are brought into force, to
ensure that in practice the law will not differentiate at all
between caravans and buildings (paragraph 14). These provisions
are to be put in regulations because the Government wants to consult
fully on how the powers might operate in practice, and because
regulations offer greater flexibility to take account of developments
in the policy relating to Gypsy and traveller accommodation (paragraph
15).
3.4 It is impossible to assess the continuing
level of risk of an incompatibility with Convention rights without
knowing what will be in the regulations. At this stage, we simply
draw attention to the Government's response, and report our provisional
view that the regulations, if appropriately drafted, would be
capable of minimising the risk.
11 See Appendix 3. Back
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