Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

That is a very interesting comment. The noble Baroness and I share experience of the National Health Service, and she will know that the debates that we are having about the role of special health authorities and non-departmental public bodies in relation to their sponsoring department are very much the same. She is absolutely right; an organisation that can make its authoritative views known to government on the basis of its experience should not be inhibited from doing so. However, that is rather different from being seen to be simply a pressure group. I do not think that she suggested that; I think that her question was whether the MMO could be an influential body that builds on its work and scientific expertise and all the experience that it can develop and whether government would listen to it. The answer must be yes. I am not sure that the noble Baroness’s analogy about referees is right. Of course referees are there to apply the rules of the game of football or of any other game, but they do so with a love and appreciation of the sport itself, so I am not sure that she has got her analogy right. I hope that I have reassured her that it would clearly be nonsense for Governments not to want to have an appropriate dialogue with the MMO on all these important matters.