NATIONAL POLICY STATEMENTS

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.