Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for tabling this amendment because it allows me to clarify this point in a way that I hope is commendable to him. Let me be clear that it is not the Government’s intention to license those incineration activities that are part of the everyday running and operation of a vessel. Current legislation exempts the incineration of victual or domestic waste originating on vessels and we are not changing that. However, we do not think that a carte blanche exemption in the Bill is the way to do it. Incineration is subject to a number of international and European rules. The London Protocol and OSPAR generally prohibit incineration but have exceptions for the normal operation of vessels. However, that is not the full picture. Article 16 of MARPOL provides a number of restrictions on the onboard incineration of waste and matter generated during the normal operation of a ship. Waste-management licensing regulations also provide additional conditions on the incineration of waste on board vessels. It is our intention to use the exemptions order provided by Clause 71 to exempt incineration activities that are part of the everyday running and operation of a vessel in a manner which is compatible with the myriad rules and legislation applied to it. That is the approach used in FEPA, and a quick look at the FEPA exemptions order will show that quite a complex clause would be required to do this effectively in the Bill. Moreover, such an approach might be compatible with the current international rules and obligations but fall foul of this legislation in future if new rules come into force or existing rules are amended. We will cover exemptions in more detail when we come to a later group of amendments. However, as a further reassurance to the Committee, we will consult extensively with industry and other parties when putting together the exemptions order to ensure that we capture all those activities with minimal or no impact in order to get the sensible, fair and proportionate approach to regulation that we seek to achieve. I hope the noble Lord will be satisfied with the reassurance that we intend to deal as I suggested with the exemptions order provided in Clause 71. I therefore hope he will consider not pressing his amendment.