National Policy Statements

EDM number 545 in 2009-10, proposed by Paul Truswell on 06/01/2010.
Categorised under the topics of Energy, Parliamentary procedure and Planning.

That this House welcomes the Government's stated intention to enable proper parliamentary scrutiny and debate of National Policy Statements (NPSs); is concerned therefore that the current scrutiny process does not appear to adhere fully to the Government's commitments made earlier this year during debate on the Planning Bill; regrets that the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee's simultaneous scrutiny of all five NPSs has been compressed into an inordinately limited timescale that overlaps with the public consultation period; believes that NPSs and their legitimacy would be considerably strengthened by ensuring a process of select committee scrutiny for each individual National Policy Statement and by allowing the public consultation process to be completed before the parliamentary scrutiny process commences; considers that the public should be given meaningful opportunities to provide evidence or bring expert witness to bear particularly on site-specific NPSs; and calls on the Government to reconsider whether the current process provides the full and proper parliamentary scrutiny process to which such crucial documents should be subjected.

This motion has been signed by a total of 70 MPs.