Member

As the Minister had a lovely birthday yesterday, I am sure, I hope that she is in such a good mood that she will look favourably on Amendments 52, 56, 60 and 260 and the reasons that they are needed. We need a legal base to create an additional commissioner, and I argue very vigorously that it should be a rural commissioner. The amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, quite rightly create the possibility of considering the needs of rural communities by having rural affairs added as a competence. I believe that there should be an obligation in the Bill for deeply rural areas such as North Yorkshire to have the possibility, with the legal basis in these amendments, of creating a rural commissioner. With those few words, I urge the Minister to support these perfectly formed amendments for this purpose.