Commentary Approving body
214.Paragraph 6 sets out who is to act as the “Approving Body” for drainage systems for an area. In the first instance, the Approving Body is to be the unitary or county council for the area.
215.The relevant Minister may appoint by order another body to be the Approving Body, instead of the unitary or county council. The order may apply to all areas, or to one or more specified areas.
216.Sub-paragraph (4) allows the Minister to appoint the alternative Approving Body for a specified purpose only, and for different bodies to be appointed for different purposes. For example the approval and adoption functions could be split, and transferred to two different bodies.
217.Sub-paragraph (5) states, that when appointing a different body to act as the Approving Body for a particular area, the order may also confer additional powers on that body that would assist them in acting as the Approving Body. It may only confer powers which are already available to a unitary or county council. For example, this might be used to give local authority powers of entry to the new Approving Body for maintenance purposes so as to put them in the same position as the unitary or county council would have been. Where additional powers are conferred on the Approving Body, the order will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure either in Parliament or the National Assembly for Wales.
218.An order appointing another body as Approving Body will be subject to the negative resolution procedure. Where the order includes provision to split approving body functions under sub-paragraph (4) or to confer additional powers under sub-paragraph (5), the affirmative resolution procedure will apply.