Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

In moving Amendment 85ZA, obviously I need to refer to a number of other amendments in this mammoth grouping. We on these Benches and your Lordships generally are suffering from the absence of the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, and my noble friend Lady Hamwee, both of whom are still engaged with the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill in Grand Committee in the Moses Room. I hope the noble Lord can give us an assurance that any further Committee days on this Bill will not coincide with that Bill because we are all going to miss their expertise. We now turn to the important part of the Bill concerned with the new marine planning regime, and specifically, in this chapter, the marine policy statements. The amendments that I am addressing, starting with Amendment 85ZA, are concerned to make sure that these statements are sufficiently compatible with other important policy developments that we have all been considering in this House and in the other place over recent years. It is also extremely important, as has been made clear since Second Reading and through all the preparation work for this Bill, that there is complete effective compatibility with the requirements of European Directive 2001/42/EC and all the various UK enabling regulations needed to fulfil that. We have tabled a number of amendments to try to give practical effect to those requirements. This is the context in which these important marine policy statements must be developed. If they are not developed within this context, there will be widespread agreement across the Committee that we are failing in our duty in scrutinising this Bill. There is general consensus among all the so-called stakeholders—I hate the word; I think we can do better but we have to live with it, I suppose—that the marine policy statements and the marine plans must be subjected to effective strategic environmental assessment, or SEA, under the directive. There are obviously several advantages to the directive. It has not just been imposed on us and we can make good use of it. It ensures that there is a robust assessment of the policies and proposals, with all their environmental impacts taken into account and with the promotion of sustainable development fully and properly considered. There is also the considerable advantage that the directive gives guidance on proper consultation. We are all very much aware that in this and in many other areas consultation is essential if the outcome is to be owned by those who are most concerned with these policies. There is also the ability for recourse in extremis to the European courts should there be a breach of the directive’s requirements. In order to be sure that the SEA process is triggered, the marine policy statement and the marine plans must meet certain criteria. The MPS and marine plans must fall within the definition of plans and programmes for the directive to apply, and to allow for further consideration as to whether an SEA is required. The most relevant element of the definition is that the plan or programme must be, "““required by legislative, regulatory or administrative provisions””." In other words, it must appear in the Bill. If it is not there, it may not trigger the SEA. There must be a mandatory obligation on the relevant authority to produce that plan or programme. As things stand, the Bill makes the adoption of the MPS and marine plans only discretionary. We may think it is more than that but, under the Bill, it is discretionary. This means that the MPS and the marine plans could not be defined as plans and programmes under the directive. Therefore, the requirement for an SEA would not be triggered. A number of environmental organisations that have been so supportive of the Bill and so keen to see this legislation on the statute book are very concerned that we may not be effective in triggering this process, which is obviously crucial for its success. We must make sure that the MPS and marine plans will be subjected to full and proper SEA processes, even if they are subject to an appraisal which includes components of SEA. It is extremely important that we pursue this issue. For that reason, we have tabled the amendments. Various options are included in the amendments. I have followed a procedure here, which I have often found useful in public life, whereby if you ask anyone whether they want to say yes or no, they invariably say no. But if you give them two options—either A or B—there is a much better chance of success. For example, Amendments 85JA and 85J are alternatives. I hope that the Minister will find having a choice more conducive to a forthcoming and responsive answer, rather than if I had chosen to present just one option to the Committee, to which he could just say no. I am sure that he has had the same experience. For the benefit of speed, I will not read out the sustainability appraisal, which is included here and very substantial but nevertheless well based. It comes from sources for which other legislation has given us guidance. I accept that the alternatives are not that different, but I hope that the Minister will find them helpful. The other amendments in this large group are all derivative and consequential. I do not propose to go through them in detail because I suspect that the Committee would like to deal with this group expeditiously in view of the hour. I hope that I have given sufficient indication of how crucial they are in trying to make sure that we are including in the Bill marine policy statements which carry all the opportunities and advantages to which I have referred under the directive. I beg to move.