Oliver Dowden

The Government is deferring the commencement of sections 15 and 16 of the Charities Act 2022 until we fully understand the implications for National Museums and other charities. When Parliament debated the Charities Bill, enabling national museums to restitute items from their collections based on moral grounds was neither considered, nor agreed on.

Deferring the commencement of these sections of the Act, which were initially planned to be in the first tranche of commencements in autumn 2022, will have no impact on the implementation of the other sections in the Charities Act 2022.

The Government is deferring the commencement of sections 15 and 16 of the Charities Act 2022 until we fully understand the implications for National Museums and other charities. When Parliament debated the Charities Bill, enabling national museums to restitute items from their collections based on moral grounds was neither considered, nor agreed on.

Deferring the commencement of these sections of the Act, which were initially planned to be in the first tranche of commencements in autumn 2022, will have no impact on the implementation of the other sections in the Charities Act 2022.

The Government is deferring the commencement of sections 15 and 16 of the Charities Act 2022 until we fully understand the implications for National Museums and other charities. When Parliament debated the Charities Bill, enabling national museums to restitute items from their collections based on moral grounds was neither considered, nor agreed on.

Deferring the commencement of these sections of the Act, which were initially planned to be in the first tranche of commencements in autumn 2022, will have no impact on the implementation of the other sections in the Charities Act 2022.

The new pro-competition regime will remove the obstacles to competition and drive growth in digital markets, delivering lower prices for UK families, and giving consumers more choice and control over the services they use online.

The Draft Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill was announced as part of the Queen's Speech 2022 and will be published as soon as parliamentary time allows.

The new pro-competition regime will remove the obstacles to competition and drive growth in digital markets, delivering lower prices for UK families, and giving consumers more choice and control over the services they use online.

The Draft Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill was announced as part of the Queen's Speech 2022 and will be published as soon as parliamentary time allows.

Should any proposals to change aspects of housing policy be deemed reasonable and proportionate, we will bring forward those proposals in the usual manner.

To support the supply of new homes, national planning policy expects that local planning policies and decisions should respond positively to suitable opportunities to deliver additional new homes above existing residential and commercial premises.

We have introduced new permitted development rights to allow certain existing residential and commercial buildings to extend upwards by up to two storeys to create new homes and extra living space. The rights are subject to prior approval by the local planning authority on specific matters, including potential impacts on the amenity of neighbours. This ensures that people who might be affected by such a development can feed their views into the decision making process.

We continue to keep the rights under review.

Consultation requirements on the current local plan process are set out in the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (‘the Local Plan Regulations’). In the initial stages of plan production, local planning authorities must comply with specific requirements in regulation 18 of the Local Plan Regulations on consultation, and with commitments in their Statement of Community Involvement. Local planning authorities must also make available each of the proposed submission documents they intend to submit to the Planning Inspectorate for examination to enable representations to come forward that can be considered at examination, under regulation 19 of the Local Plan Regulations.

In the reformed planning system, opportunities for communities and other interested parties to influence and comment on emerging plans will be retained, with the digital powers allowing both plans and underpinning data to be accessed and understood more easily.

Because of the Secretary of State’s quasi-judicial role in the planning system, I cannot comment about the merits of particular plans or development proposals. It is for the local planning authority to consider the merits of any proposed development and any planning decision should be determined in accordance with the local development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. This would typically include an assessment of the site context and policies referred to in the National Planning Policy Framework, such as Green Belt, Local Green Spaces and other relevant designations.

National planning policy is clear that local authorities should have a positive strategy in place to promote energy from renewable and low carbon sources such as solar plants.

The National Planning Policy Framework also outlines that planning decisions should “contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment” by recognising the “benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land”.

Planning guidance outlines that local planning authorities will need to consider “focussing large scale solar farms on previously developed and non agricultural land, provided that it is not of high environmental value”.