I would like to inform the House of the proposals for the scrutiny of national policy statements, which have been agreed with the usual channels and which I intend to submit to the Procedure Committee for approval.

Under Section 9(2) of the Planning Act 2008, each national policy statement (NPS) must be laid before Parliament. In relation to an NPS, the Secretary of State will specify a relevant period for parliamentary scrutiny. During that period, the Government will offer a debate on an NPS in the Grand Committee, for up to four hours. At the end of the debate, the Minister would respond. In order to facilitate debate, it is envisaged that a list of speakers would be opened for each NPS debate in the Grand Committee.

As was made clear during deliberations on the Planning Act in this House, it is important that Members have the opportunity to scrutinise national policy statements and that the Government respond to Members’ views. I hope therefore that the House will welcome these proposals.