Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

The noble Lord asks me to anticipate a circumstance that I hope will never arise. He will know that I cannot do that; all I can say to him is that it is best to leave some flexibility in that regard. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, asked me to interpret ““public body””. Clause 312—““Interpretation””—on page 206 makes it clear that a public body includes a government department, a Northern Ireland department, a local authority, a local planning authority or a statutory undertaker, although there is a further definition in relation to that in Clause 312(2). We think that we should retain some flexibility here, to keep the option open of delegating specific functions within planning to specialist bodies. There are circumstances in which we might want some other body than the MMO to perform, for example, public consultation elements if there were a good reason for that. We have had debates on the Severn. I have explained why there cannot be a joint plan, because of the devolution settlement, but there can be a lot of working well together. It would be possible for UK and Welsh Ministers to direct the same cross-border body to undertake public consultation in relation to both plans—both the Welsh plan and the plan covering the English part of the Severn environment. We think that there needs to be a degree of flexibility. We certainly do not think it appropriate to designate the MMO as the marine plan authority. We believe that the adoption of plans is a policy decision that should remain at ministerial level. That is why we have provided a mechanism in Clause 53 by which any marine plan authority may delegate the practical functions of preparing and monitoring marine plans. I know that, behind the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, is a concern that the MMO will not have the degree of authority that he wishes it to have. I well understand that concern. However, we have deliberately set up the MMO as an independent body—a non-departmental public body. That gives the organisation the independence and status that it needs to deliver on behalf of the Government as a whole. The marine environment covers policy areas of direct interest to nearly every central government department—defence, shipping, ports, renewable energy, fisheries, aggregates, the environment, recreation and more. While the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will be the sponsor Minister, the organisation will deliver on behalf of all departments. It will be better able to deliver with the new marine planning system, with objectivity and propriety on behalf of the UK Government. It will have a crucial role, building on the experience of fisheries and environmental licensing to deliver more joined-up decisions and a much better and faster one-stop-shop service to developers. It will play a key role in integrated coastal zone management, in helping to deliver important reforms and link conservation with fisheries management, and in managing and regulating a new and flexible tool to enable conservation benefits to be delivered, while encouraging important economic developments such as marine renewable energy to proceed. These are major policies that run through the Bill. They mostly arise because of the need to deal with the increasing and conflicting pressures on the sea. We are equipping the MMO to deliver sustainable development in the marine environment. There should be no question about the importance of the Marine Management Organisation, or that we wish to fetter it in any way, apart from in the terms in which it undertakes its duties in accordance with the Bill. In the end, it ought to be up to each marine plan authority whom to delegate their functions to. I have made it clear that, as the UK Government, we will delegate those functions to the Marine Management Organisation. However, we retain the right for some flexibility in future if required. It would not be appropriate to limit Welsh Ministers and the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland to using a UK government non-departmental public body. Those Administrations ought to be allowed to make decisions on the arrangements that work best for them. I reiterate to the noble Lord, Lord Taylor—I hope that he will agree—that the Marine Management Organisation will be extremely important and that it has the powers to do the job that we have set out for it.