Planning and Infrastructure Bill to be debated by all MPs

The next stage for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill as it passes through Parliament is Report Stage. This will happen next week on Monday and Tuesday (9-10 June), where all MPs will have the opportunity to debate the Bill and new amendments put forward.

Following on from Bill Committee stage, only amendments put forward from the Government have been included in the amended Bill.

New amendments have also been tabled for debate. All of the amendments put forward by CIEEM during Bill Committee stage were defeated by the Government majority on the Committee (which is representative of the Commons as a whole). CIEEM has contributed through our partnerships to the newly tabled amendments. Given the large Labour majority the Government could easily defeat any new non-Government amendments.

However, we are hopeful that new legal opinion, the OEP report, and now also Natural England chair Tony Juniper sharing his view that nature is not a blocker to development will persuade the Government to set its own amendments to improve the Bill – particularly the flaws in Part 3. CIEEM’s position continues to be that there needs to be a pause to Part 3 to allow for transparent debate and collaboration across sectors that truly does provide a win-win for nature recovery and development.

Beyond this CIEEM is also looking ahead to when the Bill moves to the House of Lords, who we hope will be more robust with the Bill. We have already started to engage with Peers, and will continue to do so in the lead up to their debates.