Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I move Amendment 81 on behalf of my noble friend Lord Taylor. This is a probing amendment to clarify exactly what the Government achieve with the establishment of the exclusive economic zone. Can the Minister first reassure the House that we have received Her Majesty’s full permission to allocate her rights, as envisaged under this clause? As I understand it, and I hope the Minister will correct me if I am wrong, our rights under this zone are identical to those that the UK was able to exercise under the existing renewable energy zone and, even more, under the 200-mile fishery limit. If this is the case, many of the provisions that we will come to later need to be viewed through the very dark glass of European legislation. I hope that this debate might clear some of the darkness and allow us to assess more realistically just what we can and cannot expect of the organisations that we are empowering in this Bill. As allowed under the current EU arrangements, and as my noble friend Lord Cathcart began to point out, these arrangements fall and are due to be renewed in 2012. The UK has complete control over its fishing waters only up to the six-nautical-mile limit. These arrangements have already caused much delay and obstruction to the effective conservation of our fish stocks and other species. For example, an attempt to ban pair trawling for bass in 2004 has had an extremely limited effect, as it was not supported by the EU Commission, and so cannot apply to non-UK ships beyond six nautical miles. For a conservation zone beyond the six-nautical-mile limit to be applied to all EU fishing boats, and so have a chance of achieving its objectives, it is clear that it must not only be approved by the EU Commission but avoid being overturned by the European Council. The difficulty of pushing a meaningful network of conservation zones through this bureaucracy is presumably one of the reasons why the Government have decided to take upon themselves the unilateral powers described in Part 5. Do the Government have any reason for believing that marine conservation zones imposed within the exclusive economic zone, but beyond the six-nautical-mile limit, will be any more successful than their attempt in 2004 to stop pair trawling? Or do they intend conservation zones to be established within the six-mile limit, making the new economic zone relevant only to planning, energy installations and licensed dredging? What is worse, the current situation—far from perfect—will quite possibly get much worse in a few years. As I mentioned earlier, in 2012 the derogation limit of fishing within 12 nautical miles to historic rights will come to an end, and our unilateral ability to protect the marine environment will be further reduced. However, the Government appear to be doing nothing to protect what limited rights we still have, let alone seeking to extend our powers in this area. Can the Minister give the House any reassurance that they are seeking to protect the existing restrictions within the 12-mile boundary? Even better, have they made any progress in establishing how they feel about common fisheries policy reform? The EU promises to bring forward a package of marine protection proposals, which might go some way to improving the current arrangements for fish conservation in our waters. However, if we are to rely on the EU to do all the work in this area for us, there is little purpose in discussing what we want to achieve with this Bill. The Government must either take steps to ensure that the appropriate authorities have the power to impose and enforce effective protections, or admit that much of the Bill will be ineffective unless the EU takes the necessary steps to do it for us. I beg to move.