Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

What an exciting life the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, lives. When he is not taking part in films—or helping them to take place—he is on Royal Naval flights over all sorts of things. He also lives in a most wonderful part of the country. The noble Lord is absolutely right that Amendments A110 to A112 are very technical indeed, but I take his point about wrecks. The noble Lord has already noted that Clause 112(2) deals with interpreting that matter, but might I commit myself to writing to him in more detail about how we might approach that interesting point? There is a relationship between it and some of our debates about what might be called cultural heritage. In one sense, wrecks have a contribution, but they might present difficulties too and we clearly have to get the balance right. Perhaps I may now respond to the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor. First, there was the question of the enforcement authority’s ability to choose whether to prosecute or to issue a monetary penalty. Part 4 of the Bill contains several offences: Clause 82 sets out that it is an offence to breach a requirement for a licence or a licensing requirement. The maximum penalties are, ""on summary conviction … a fine not exceeding £50,000"" and ""on conviction on indictment … a fine or … imprisonment"" for up to two years. There are also offences in Clauses 86, 89, 100 and 102, while Clauses 90 to 92 provide for a powerful licensing authority to establish civil sanctions for an offence under Part 4. Those sanctions embrace both fixed and variable monetary penalties. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor is concerned that the enforcement authority has the discretion to decide whether and how to enforce the provision. I hope to give him some reassurance here, because the approach to that would be set in its enforcement policy and in guidance. It can choose to enforce by prosecution or taking matters short of prosecution, such as giving advice or warning letters. Alternatively, it can impose a civil sanction. Paragraphs 9 and 10 of Schedule 7 set out the requirement on civil sanctions. As now under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985, the offence is set out in Schedule 9, but how the licensing authority enforces the legislation is not set out in the Bill. We think that it would fetter a prosecutor’s discretion to set out when the prosecutor must or must not prosecute. Essentially, the civil sanctions statutory notices in Part 4 are designed to address the issue that the tools currently available under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 do not provide sufficient proportionality for enforcement. This is an attempt to have a range of sanctions available to deal in a proportionate way with the matters that arise, which is why we want the enforcement authority to have the choice that we give. However, guidance will be issued to ensure that it is used in a proper way. In my stewardship as Minister responsible for the Health and Safety Executive, which is not always the most popular organisation, I was very impressed by the proportionate approach that it took in practice. It made considerable efforts to encourage people to do the right thing but, in the end, needed strong sanctions and ultimately that of prosecution if people either did something that was so dreadful that that had to happen or continually ignored the help and warnings that they had been given. I must be careful not to draw too many parallels, but giving the enforcement authority a range of options in relation to sanctions is helpful and proportionate. In the context, I see it as an example of better regulation.