Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I shall speak also to the series of amendments with which Amendment 167 is grouped. I have tabled this set of amendments to probe various parts of Clauses 121 to 123, which relate to the duties of public authorities in relation to the marine conservation zones and the role the statutory conservation bodies will play in the ongoing protection and management of these zones. They seek to test the wording of the Bill against the ambitions of the Government. I am sure it will come as no surprise to the Minister or the Committee that we have received many representations from the conservation stakeholders, including the Marine Conservation Society and the Countryside Council for Wales inter alia, seeking to confirm their influence in this area. They are understandably worried that once the network has been established and objectives set, responsibility will pass entirely to the local public authorities which might be tempted to downgrade the priority of conservation in favour of other interests. Clause 121 establishes a duty on the public authority to inform the relevant conservation body, but only after a damaging event has taken place. This is not quite the same as the duty in Clause 122, where a potentially damaging authorisation cannot be given until 28 days after a similar notification. Will the Minister explain this discrepancy? What action does he expect a conservation body, or, indeed, a relevant authority, which will also be informed, to take after a damaging event has taken place? My amendments would also boost this duty to a requirement to consult the conservation bodies before undertaking damaging actions, thus ensuring an ongoing dialogue between the public authorities and the bodies best placed to know exactly what damage is likely to be caused and what measures might be taken to reduce or prevent that damage. Other amendments in this group look at the many difficult assessments the public authority must make, the assessment of whether the harm done by an event is insignificant, the establishment of whether there are ways to avoid the harm or repair the damage and so on. It is to be hoped that these decisions and assessments would only be made after proper consultation with the statutory conservation bodies, where expertise and experience lie. I beg to move.