Infrastructure Bill — Second Reading — 8 Dec 2014 at 21:41

The majority of MPs voted in favour of the Infrastructure Bill^[1][2] which contains a wide range of provisions.

The Bill provides for:

• The appointment of "strategic highways companies" to manage strategic roads in England in place of the Highways Agency.
• To give members of the British Transport Police the same powers as constables of the police force for the area they are in with respect to to damage to property (prior to the Bill they only had such powers where required to save life or to prevent or minimise personal injury).
• To allow British Transport Police powers to exercise the powers of a constable of the relevant local force even if they are not in uniform and not carrying evidence they are British Transport Police constables.
• To enable the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police to require information as to identity of driver of a vehicle be provided in relation to specified road traffic offences.
• Environmental control of animal and plant species through species control agreements and orders and giving powers of entry to officers.
• Changes to the arrangements for the consideration of planning applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects by an "Examining authority"; including establishing the authority earlier and allowing the authority to be a panel of two people (one, three, four of five people were permitted at the time of the vote).
• Introducing a "deemed discharge" of a planning condition where a local authority has failed to make a decision within a specified time period.
• Allowing surplus publicly owned land to be transferred directly to the Homes and Communities Agency.
• Transfer of responsibility for local land charges from individual local authorities in England and Wales to the Chief Land Registrar at the Land Registry.
• Introducing powers for the Secretary of State or Welsh Ministers to make building regulations provisions in relation to off-site measures for abating carbon dioxide emissions taken by the developer or by a person on the developer’s behalf, or consisting of payment into a fund that invests in carbon abatement projects.
• Introducing the "community electricity right"; a power on the Secretary of State to make regulations giving individuals and/or community groups the right to purchase a stake in a renewable electricity generation facility in their local area .
• Measures intended to increase transparency of data in the extractive industries
• Measures intended to maximise the economic recovery of UK offshore petroleum
• To enable the extraction of petroleum and geothermal energy from land at a depth of at least 300 metres below the surface without the permission of the landowner.
• To enable regulations to be made establishing schemes to facilitate and encourage renewable generation of heat.

The motion supported by the majority of MPs, and allowing the Bill to continue on its path to becoming law, was:

• That the Bill be now read a Second time.

==

• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Infrastructure Bill
• [2] Explanatory notes to the Infrastructure Bill

Debate in Parliament | Source |