Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in welcoming the fact that we are at last discussing this important Bill, which has been eagerly anticipated for a good number of years. As the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, said, it has been a long time in gestation and has been the subject of a number of consultation processes culminating in the publication of the draft Bill earlier this year. As the Minister and a number of noble Lords have said, I had the honour of chairing the pre-legislative scrutiny committee of both Houses that was set up last May to take a close look at the draft Bill. Our report was published at the end of July. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking the members of the committee who are taking part in the debate this afternoon. I know that others are unavoidably unable to be with us today, but we look forward to hearing from them during the later stages. I express my special, personal thanks to our principal Clerk, Charlotte Littleboy, from the other place, who was ably backed up by our own Ed Ollard, together with a whole body of other Clerks and assistants. Without their application and diligence the committee would never have been able to complete its deliberations within the specified time frame. I also thank our three specialist advisers, Professor Laurence Mee; Dr Susan Gubbay; and Captain Dennis Barber, whose wide-ranging expertise and advice was greatly appreciated. If I might return to the committee’s allotted time frame, of which mention has already been made. Our report made no bones about the fact that we considered a little over eight weeks insufficient time for proper scrutiny of a very large draft Bill. Twelve weeks is regarded as the customary minimum. We were only able to fit in eight sessions of oral evidence, and we had numerous pieces of written evidence as well. The Government have—I think—taken cognisance of the fact that we were not given enough time, and I hope that this will not happen in future. The Joint Committee’s major concerns related to a seeming lack of duties in the Bill; a lack of parliamentary scrutiny of marine plans; a lack of transparency; and funding, which has been mentioned by noble Lords. Our report contained 96 recommendations, and, while it would have been too much to hope that all would have been accepted by the Government, I am gratified that a good many of them appear to have been accepted. I take it that there will also be more acceptances coming forward in secondary legislation and further guidance. I will say a brief word about funding. It was made clear to us during our deliberations and, since then, in guidance and impact assessments that there is money put aside to ensure that the Marine Management Organisation and others will be able to do their job properly and will have enough staff. An addition sum of, I believe, £80 million has been put aside to cover the increase in the size of the Marine Management Organisation as things developed. In view of what has happened in the economy over the past month or so, are the Government confident that such sums will still be available? Like other noble Lords, I shall mention the most controversial part of the Bill and the only one that led to some dissent in the Joint Committee—Part 9 on coastal access provision. This is a manifesto commitment that has been tacked on to the Bill by the Government in the absence of any other suitable vehicle. I have always felt that the coastal path is strictly a land matter and not a sea matter. In some ways, I am disappointed that it is part of this Bill. The provision was looked at in great detail by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee in another place, as well as by the Joint Committee. As we heard earlier, both concluded that an independent appeals mechanism was needed, although this has been resisted by the Government. I have no doubt that we will return to this in Committee. The Joint Committee also thought that compensation might well need to be payable in certain cases, but it must be done in a transparent way. Again, that is something that we might return to. I mentioned funding just now. Is £50 million enough? It might be enough to set up the coastal path, but who will be responsible for maintenance thereafter? The Secretary of State said: "““For the first time in our history all of us will be able to walk the length of the coast and get close to the sea right around England””." In answer to a question that I posed to him, if my memory serves me correctly, he watered that down slightly by saying that at least it would be a joined-up route. It quickly became clear to us that there would be a large number of detours in this route, for reasons of safety, particularly with regard to commercial undertakings such as ports and oil refineries, certain MoD land and areas such as wetlands, which could be potentially dangerous, as well as risking damage to wildlife habitats. At the moment, parks and gardens are exempt. We will have a lot more discussion about private gardens. What interested me was that, of the few small examples that we were shown of the proposed path, even in a place where one would have thought that the path would have been able to go very close to the sea, it was in fact a quarter of a mile or so inland. I hope that the public will not be disappointed when they see where the route will go. Coming back to what I regard as the true marine part of the Bill, I welcome the proposal to set up a new organisation to manage our marine environment, the Marine Management Organisation. I was led to understand that this was perhaps just a working title. Have the Government had any further thoughts on this? Might they come up with something rather less prosaic? I have argued in this House for a separate ministry of the sea, but it always fell on deaf ears. The Marine Management Organisation is definitely a step in the right direction. A number of noble Lords, such as the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, have spoken about a ““champion of the seas””, but the Government have made it plain that the MMO will be a delivery body rather than a campaigning body and that, if any championing is needed, it will be done by Ministers. Like the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, I think that this is a pity. Ministers tend to come and go, sometimes rather quickly, and they also have other responsibilities, whereas the chairman of the Marine Management Organisation, who will have to be chosen with extreme care, will be in an admirable position, with all the information and knowledge that accrues to the organisation, to act as a champion and, if not a champion, as a guardian of our seas. We are an island nation, and our marine interests are many and varied. It will be no easy task for the new body to carry out its duty of contributing to the achievement of sustainable development by drawing together all the disparate strands of the marine sphere. It will also have to deal with other government departments, devolved Administrations, local authorities and local interest groups such as coastal partnerships, as well as taking into account existing and future commitments under EU and international directives and agreements. Its effectiveness is crucial, and I hope that the arrangements being made by the Government to transfer staff and resources will be sufficient and that the transitional arrangements will be as smooth as possible. The committee thought that the marine policy statement should be produced by the Government as soon as possible, and the Government are aware of that and have agreed to produce it within two years of the Bill becoming law. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, I was interested to hear the Minister say that broad agreement had been reached between the devolved Assemblies. That was one of the worries that we had in the Joint Committee, because it was not clear to us what was happening in Scotland. If things have moved forward and general agreement has been reached, I can only welcome that. The marine policy statement, as the Minister said, filters down into local marine plans. I very much welcome the Government’s acceptance of our recommendation concerning the need to ensure compatibility between marine and terrestrial plans. The simplifying and speeding up of the licensing process has been looked for in the marine sphere for quite a number of years, and it is to be very much welcomed. The Government talk about the MMO being a one-stop shop but, as has been mentioned, we have the Infrastructure Planning Commission, which will deal with the larger developments such as port developments and the larger wind farms above 100 megawatts. It is important that the relationship between the Marine Management Organisation and the Infrastructure Planning Commission is as watertight as possible. I know that the Government are working on that, and perhaps the Minister can tell us a bit more about that. I am not certain how many wind farm developers will opt for sites below 100 megawatts, on the basis that the larger the site, the greater the subsidy. We will have to wait and see. The Severn barrage, which has been mentioned by noble Lords, would certainly come under the Infrastructure Planning Commission and not under this Bill. Another activity that will need licences is dredging. Maintenance dredging is a vital aspect of our ports and harbours as well as the leisure industry, for boat yards, marinas et cetera. These previously unlicensed activities will be subject to requiring licences under the Bill before any decision is taken to exclude them. The anticipated increase in applications is still causing some concern, despite the one-year grace period proposed by the Government. Another main plank of the Bill broadly welcomed by all concerns the establishment of marine conservation zones. I am pleased that the Government have acknowledged the need for these to be managed within a wider network of ecologically coherent marine protection areas rather than stand-alone sites. In the case of limited knowledge, some may need to be designated on the precautionary principle. All sites should be designated on best scientific evidence, but they will obviously vary in the degree of protection required. It is right and proper that a due balance is struck between conservation and the legitimate activities of users of the sea, whether from the commercial, energy or leisure sectors. The right of passage of commercial shipping must be taken into account, a point mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Geddes, and I know that the leisure boating organisations are also concerned. What will be the position, for instance, of heavily used waterways such as those separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland? The Government were reluctant to follow the committee’s recommendation to place a timetable in the Bill for setting up a network of conservation zones—a point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone—but I welcome the inclusion of a duty on Ministers to report progress on developing the network of marine protection areas to Parliament in 2012 and at least every six years thereafter. This will be linked to a further duty, following on from another of our recommendations, on the nature conservation bodies to monitor and assess the condition of marine conservation zones. I will not say anything in relation to fisheries; that has been well covered. The role of enforcement officers was another thing that taxed the Joint Committee. We were concerned about where these people would come from, and I am gratified to see that the work will be initially undertaken by existing British sea fishery officers, who will be transferred to the MMO. The Government seem to be aware of our concern and are taking a closer look at the training of these people. The noble Lord, Lord Geddes, also mentioned the omission of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency from the draft Bill. This was another of our concerns, and we wondered whether it might be involved in enforcement. Although it is primarily concerned with safety at sea, there will be significant geographical areas of overlap in the spheres of operation, and I wonder if the Minister can shed more light on what progress, if any, has been made with regard to the role of the MCA. I reiterate my support for this important Bill, which is probably in a much better state in view of the many consultations and the long gestation than many of the Bills that come before your Lordships’ House. I look forward to an interesting Committee stage, during which, I hope, it will be possible to tease out more details of the Government’s intentions. There is no doubting the enormity of the task that lies ahead of the Marine Management Organisation and, to a certain extent, other government departments. The former will have to locate some tricky tightropes. The Bill is, however, a most promising start to the better planning, conservation and management of our seas.