Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

Amendment 35 deals with directions and guidance by the Secretary of State. I refer specifically to the directions part. Subsection (2) reads: "““The Secretary of State may also give the MMO such general or specific directions as the Secretary of State considers appropriate for the implementation of any obligations of the United Kingdom under””," and in paragraphs (a) and (b) EU treaties and international agreements are mentioned. The shipping industry is worried that the phrase ““implementation of any obligations”” could be restrictively interpreted to refer to only new or future obligations. However, directions given should also respect the UK's pre-existing treaty law obligations under, for example, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which deals with such things as innocent rights of passage and freedom of navigation, and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973 and its 1978 MARPOL protocol. My amendment, which adds the words ““or compliance with”” after ““the implementation of””, would remove any shadow of doubt by ensuring that directions to be given to the MMO must cover prior, current and future treaty obligations. I beg to move.