I beg to move amendment No. 79, in

clause 11, page 6, line 33, at end insert—

'( ) The Secretary of State is the Secretary of State for the time being having general responsibility for policy in relation to the development and use of land.'.

Clause 1(2) requires the RSS to set out the Secretary of State's policies, however they are expressed, in relation to the development and use of land in the region. Amendment No. 79 prevents clause 1(2) from requiring policies prepared by any other Secretary of State to be included in the RSS if those policies relate to the development and use of land within the region. It has always been the intention that the RSS should set out the policies of the Secretary of State with general policy responsibility for planning, and not the policies of, for example, the Secretary of State for Health or the Secretary of State for Transport that relate to but are not primarily about land use or development. The amendment ensures that there is no confusion.

Amendment agreed to.

Question proposed, That the clause, as amended, stand part of the Bill.

Before we dispose of clause 11, I would like to probe the Minister on what is meant by clause 11(2), which states:

''But the Secretary of State may by order direct that if the area of a National Park falls within more than one region it is treated as falling wholly within such region as is specified in the order.''

It just so happens that the Peak District national park falls in four different regions. I wondered what criteria the Minister will use when making such an order.

The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. The clause enables the Secretary of State by order to direct that a national park that falls within more than one region is to be treated as falling within the regions specified in the order. That is necessary to

ensure that all strategic policies relating to a national park area can be found in one place rather than fragmented among different regional spatial strategies. As to the criteria that will be employed to identify the region within which the interests of the national park will be expressed, I shall undertake to write to the hon. Gentleman setting out those criteria. I am grateful to him for having raised the matter.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 11, as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.

On a point of order, Mr. Hurst. I am delighted to be able to raise this point of order to express my thanks to a range of persons in the Committee. First, on behalf of the entire Committee I express our thanks to you and to your colleagues for their excellent, wise and tolerant chairmanship. I also express a genuine word of thanks for their support, not least their patience, during the proceedings. I offer a particular word of thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham (Paul Clark), the Government Whip on the Committee, and I would like to extend that to all the usual channels involved in the Committee.

I would also like to express my thanks to the Opposition. I thank both parties for their courtesy, open-mindedness and generosity towards myself in a variety of circumstances, and I thank them for the extremely serious and responsible way in which they have contributed to our proceedings. I express the thanks of the Committee to the Clerks, who have served us well, the Hansard Reporters, the Badge Messengers and the police officers who have supervised our proceedings.

Finally, I express my thanks to the silent ones—those who officially do not exist, but without whom a Minister would in reality scarcely exist, or at least not for very long. They have proved a consistent inspiration throughout the proceedings.

Further to that point of order, Mr. Hurst. I wish to associate myself with all the Minister's remarks. I would also like to say that it is very nice to see that the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton did manage to turn up today for the second time. I thank my colleagues for their contributions, particularly the silent one, my hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh, although he was not so silent at times. He made some very good points. I would also like to thank you, Mr. Hurst, and your co-Chairman, Mr. Pike, for all your forbearance.

I would like to thank the Minister. He has almost always—apart from the odd occasion when we pushed him to the limit—behaved with courtesy and great generosity in giving way. I would also like to thank the Clerks. They have been unfailingly helpful over a long period of time, and have had a huge work load. I would like to thank Hansard, and the Badge Messengers and the police for keeping us all safe. Let us hope that we get this Bill on to the statute book—although having said that, I am sure that it will need a little more amendment.

Further to that point of order, Mr. Hurst. I would like to associate myself with all the remarks. I particularly want to express warm thanks to you and Mr. Pike for the way in which you have chaired the Committee and, at times, kept us in order when we have strayed from the straight and narrow and the subject under discussion. I particularly thank the Minister—in fact, all the Ministers, although, sadly, one of the Ministers, the Under-Secretary of State for Wales, never got to say a word.

First, those were not points of order, but they were duly appreciated. Secondly, as it is half-past 7, I have to put the questions necessary under the terms of the programme resolution to complete the proceedings.

Clauses 15 and 19 ordered to stand part of the Bill.