1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Deregistration and Exchange of Common Land and Greens (Procedure) (England) Regulations 2007 and come into force on 1st October 2007.
(2) These Regulations apply in relation to England only.
2.—(1) These Regulations apply to applications to the Secretary of State under section 16 of the 2006 Act for the deregistration of land registered as common land or as a town or village green.
(2) In these Regulations—
“the 2006 Act” means the Commons Act 2006;
“the determining authority” means—
the Secretary of State, where he is exercising functions in relation to the determination of an application under section 16 of the 2006 Act; or
a person who is exercising functions in relation to the determination of such an application pursuant to an appointment under regulation 3(1) (other than an inspector who is appointed to carry out a hearing, inquiry or site inspection but not to determine an application);
“electronic communication” has the meaning given in section 15(1) of the Electronic Communications Act 2000(1);
“inspector” means—
where the Secretary of State is the determining authority, a person appointed by the Secretary of State to carry out a hearing, inquiry or site inspection; or
where another person is the determining authority, the person who conducts a hearing, inquiry or site inspection;
“notice of application” means a notice containing the details specified in regulation 7(2);
“register” means a register of common land or a register of town or village greens, and “registered” and “registration” are to be interpreted accordingly; and
“release land” and “replacement land” have the meanings given by section 16(1) and (3) of the 2006 Act.
3.—(1) The Secretary of State may appoint a person to exercise all or any of his functions in relation to—
(a)applications under section 16 of the 2006 Act generally; or
(b)one or more particular applications under that section.
(2) An appointment under paragraph (1) must be in writing.
(3) The Secretary of State may at any time, by giving notice in writing to a person appointed under paragraph (1) (“an appointed person”)—
(a)revoke the appointment generally;
(b)revoke the appointment insofar as it relates to a particular application which has not been determined by the appointed person before that time; or
(c)revoke the authority of the appointed person to exercise a particular function in relation to an application.
(4) A notice under paragraph (3) shall not affect the validity of anything done by the appointed person before the notice is given.
4. Any requirement imposed by or under these Regulations for a person to send a notice or document to another person may be met by means of an electronic communication if—
(a)it results in the information contained in that notice or document being available to the other person in a form similar to the form in which it would appear in a notice or document sent in printed form; and
(b)the other person consents to the notice or document being sent to him by those means.
2000 c.7. The definition of “electronic communication” was amended by the Communications Act 2003 (c.21), Schedule 17, paragraph 158.