Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

With the first three amendments in this group, the noble Lord seems concerned to ensure that the number of members from relevant councils is not limited, that they will be the majority of members and that each member of the relevant council will be appointed to the IFC authority by the relevant council. The number will not be limited by order. We agree that adequate representation from the relevant councils is very important to obtain the greatest amount of expertise possible. Here, I have a problem. Before I came into the Chamber, I thought that there would be representation from relevant councils. I thought of district councils, county councils, and single authorities and thought that the whole authority will have far too many councillors on it and not enough expertise. We need the expertise on the IFCA, but we must also have representation. I was refreshed to read the letter from the Minister, which I received just before I walked into the Chamber. It states: ""In terms of local authority membership, it is proposed that each IFCA will comprise those single and upper tier local authorities with seashore in the IFCA district. Every single or upper tier local authority within an IFC district will be entitled to sit on the IFCA committee. The make-up of each IFCA and its constituent local authorities will be set out in the order establishing each IFCA but it will be left to the local authorities themselves to appoint their representative on each IFCA"." To me, it makes perfect sense that each local authority appoints one person to the IFCA. However, we then move to the example that the Minister gave on the first amendment of having six districts. In the north-east, I counted more a dozen different local authorities which, if they are to be a third of the total, would make for a very unwieldy committee. I have not quite got my mind round that and I would be grateful if the Minister would explain that to the Committee. Lastly, the two amendments changing "physiographical" to "geomorphological" are very sensible. We used the word geomorphological earlier with reference to the marine conservation zones and it makes sense to maintain consistency throughout this long and complicated Bill, so that there is no room for misunderstanding. The amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, tightens up the definition of marine environmental matters to ensure that it includes the conservation not of flora "or" fauna but of flora "and" fauna. I agree with that amendment. It tightens the definition so that there is no suggestion that one might be more important than the other, or that marine environmental matters could include one without the other. I very much look forward to hearing the Minister's response.