Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I am grateful to both noble Lords who have spoken in this debate. The noble Lord, Lord Greenway, has presented the issues with his usual clarity, and I recognise how important they are. The noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, has asked me a couple of quite specific questions, which I hope I will cover in my response to the amendments. Amendments 96 and 98, which the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, has proposed, seek to create a new ground on which legal challenges may be brought against marine policy statements or plans; that is, if the MPS or the plans are not in accordance with EU or international obligations. I fully understand the noble Lord’s concern that international shipping treaty obligations might be breached. That is a pretty important matter. If the challenge were successful, the court would be able to quash the document or send it back to an earlier stage in the preparation process. The provisions in Clauses 59 and 60 enable anyone who is aggrieved by an MPS or a plan to challenge it if the plan authority failed to comply with the process set out for the document’s preparation, including any procedural requirements contained in a direction delegating the planning functions to another body, or if the plan authority or delegate acted outside their legal powers in preparing the document. This is the same approach that is used in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Those legal powers to prepare the MPS or the plan must be read in accordance with any limitations imposed by the UK’s existing European Union and international obligations. I assure the Committee, particularly the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, who emphasised this point, that if the marine plan or the MPS is not in accordance with our EU or international obligations, it has not been prepared within the appropriate powers and may therefore be challenged in the courts. I will ask the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, to withdraw his amendment, because in effect it reaffirms the legal position as it stands and is therefore not required. Amendment 97 seeks to extend the time window during which legal challenges may be brought against an adopted marine policy statement or plan from six to 12 weeks. This very same issue was discussed in our debate on challenges to national policy statements under the Planning Act 2008, to which the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, recently referred. The Committee will be familiar with the points that I am about to make. Even if we left aside the Planning Act, which contains this, this is not a new provision. A six-week period for commencing proceedings applies at present to statutory challenges to the development plan under the Town and Country Planning Act, which received Royal Assent in 1990, and the same approach was used again in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. The regime that we have set out in the Bill has been designed to provide a fair system that encourages engagement and participation in the process of preparing marine policy documents rather than a reliance on legal challenge after those documents are adopted. We want to avoid the delays that are inevitably caused by such challenges, and the attendant uncertainty and doubt that they cause in the minds of decision-makers and developers. We have prescribed processes for preparing marine policy documents that are clear and open and are undertaken in full public view. The preparation process begins with the publication of a statement of public participation, and sets out how the policy or plan authority intends to involve those who are interested in, or affected by, the document. That statement will be a living document, which is to be kept under review and updated throughout the process. When the final marine policy statement or plan is adopted and published, it will make clear the date on which it comes into effect. We will ensure that we publish it in ways that are considered to be the most likely to bring it to the attention of anyone who is interested in or likely to be affected by it. We want to ensure that anyone who wants to participate has the opportunity to do so. As I said in our debate on the previous amendment, this is the time for concerns and issues to be raised: when the authority can do something about them. By the time the documents are adopted and published, any concerns should not be new issues. That is why it is reasonable to ask for challenges to be brought within six weeks of the adoption and publication of the document. The Government are strongly of the view that the six-week period is reasonable in the context of the way in which the marine planning and policy statements are developed. That is why we have tabled Amendment 97ZA, which is grouped with these amendments. We want the six-week rule to be applied consistently across the UK. This would therefore also include any challenge which was brought before the Court of Session in Scotland, which is a change in the Bill as currently drafted. This is a minor and technical amendment which is necessitated by an earlier misunderstanding on our part that their judicial review process requires this. The Scottish Executive have since clarified that this is not the case and stated that they agree that the six-week deadline for applications to challenge the validity of a marine policy statement and marine plan documents should also apply in Scotland. They are at one with us on the six-week period. In the light of this change and the explanations that I have put forward, I hope the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, will feel that we have taken into account the very important representation he has made and feel able to withdraw the amendment. I also hope that the Committee will feel able in due course to support the government technical amendment.