Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I had worked out the printing error earlier. We are all accustomed to hunting round on the Marshalled List when we have long groups of amendments. It did seem that that was the likely explanation. Amendments 85BB, 85DZA, 85DA, 85DB, 86GZA, 86GZB, 86GZC, 86GZD, 86GZE and 86GZF are grouped with Amendment 85B. Amendment 85BA has been tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach. The first of the amendments comes from a coalition of organisations called the Wildlife and Countryside Link. It is appropriate for me to list at this point the members of that coalition: Buglife, the Herpetological Conservation Trust, the Marine Conservation Society, the RSPB, the Wildlife Trust, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the WWF. Amendment 85B would impose a requirement to produce the marine policy statement, not just a power to do so. There is a concern that despite the enormous amount of work that has gone into the Bill to get it to this stage, without an obligation the MPS and the associated marine plans may not be produced. In the previous exchange, we referred to obtaining agreement from all the Administrations. The Government’s response to the report of the Joint Committee indicated that it was their clear intention to create an MPS within two years of Royal Assent, as the Minister has just stated. We have been asked by the coalition to obtain an assurance from the Dispatch Box regarding the timetable rather than seek to put a specific date in the Bill. It may well reflect how misguided I am in the other amendments in the group when I read the comments on the last group, but Amendment 85DZA to Clause 44 would require every policy authority to review the MPS, not just the authority or authorities that prepared and adopted it, and that an authority which did not prepare it would have the power to delegate the function, so these two amendments should be read together. I could not follow whether Clause 46 covered every permutation of policy authorities which could prepare the MPS, and, because I became so confused over that, I was not entirely satisfied about whether the Secretary of State might have—I shall put it this way—undue power as between himself and the devolved Administrations. The Minister will be familiar with our concern, which he may think stretches to paranoia, that the Secretary of State should not have more power than we think is proper. It occurred to me to ask whether the Minister has a flowchart to show the combinations of authorities which can prepare, amend and withdraw the MPS, and whether one policy authority can commit or overrule another.