Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

We move on to Part 5, nature conservation, at last. In moving the amendment, I shall speak also to Amendment A120, which stands in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Tyler. Perhaps I may say that it is nice to be back. I thank my noble friend for looking after our Front Bench while I have been away on other business. I am delighted to be back on this Bill for various reasons. We now start on an important part of the Bill: nature conservation, particularly marine conservation zones. This group contains 10 more amendments in it in addition to ours. It is inevitable that, at this stage, there will be a bit of what people call a Second Reading debate on nature conservation and nature conservation zones, although we hope that it does not go on for too long. Most of the Liberal Democrat amendments to this part are in the name of my noble friend Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, who is a person of considerable distinction in this area. I have added my name to her amendments to give them the imprimatur of being the official Liberal Democrat amendments in this section. The fact that she is sitting a few Benches behind me is not to be taken as in any way significant. I thank her for her work as part of our team on this part. For many people, this part of the Bill is its raison d’être. The setting up of the Marine Management Organisation, the new planning and licensing systems, the new regulation of fisheries and the other things in the Bill are all in general a good thing. A consolidation and review of the legislation in these areas, and, indeed, in the case of the planning system, the setting up of a completely new system, are all things that are very much required. However, for many people the purpose of all these other different provisions is to satisfy the need to stop the decline and degradation of the marine environment and marine ecosystems around our shores. That is what the Bill is all about. So Part 5 is at the very heart of the Bill, as is a consideration of how all this can be achieved while reconciling all the other important interests in the marine environment. When we talk about marine conservation zones, we are really challenging the Government to tell us how serious they are about setting up the network of conservation zones, how they will work and what their commitment is to them—the number, size and scale of them. There will no doubt be debates about whether the proportion will be 30 per cent or more or less, and what that means and whether it is relevant; their location, the type of areas they will be in and the type of environment where they will be designated; the nature of the regulation regime in the conservation zones; and whether there will be a different regime in different zones and different degrees of intensity of environmental regulation and control in the different zones. Those are crucial factors that run through all the amendments in this group and through the majority of the amendments to this part of the Bill and the timetable. Our Amendment A120 challenges the Government to say whether they are going to have at least a satisfactory initial network of marine conservation zones set up by the end of 2012, which is a significant date because of European obligations. This and the other amendments in the group, and much of the debate that we will be having on this part, are about how committed the Government are to a system of marine conservation around our shores that will not only look good when the Bill is finally turned into an Act but will work in practice. With those general introductory remarks, I look forward to the other amendments in the group, which come from all around the Committee. I beg to move.