Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I am certainly not going to fall for promising a massive budget, particularly in this rather critical time when it comes to public finances. I agree with the noble Lord that we have to ensure that the MMO is properly resourced, and I am sure that the devolved Administrations will want to ensure that they look carefully at the budgets—depending on which organisation is involved or whether they are going to run the service in-house—to ensure that they will have appropriate resources. This is not starting from fresh. Much of the enforcement legislation is building on existing legislation, and many of the staff of the organisations that will be taking part in the enforcement of this legislation will be the same staff as are working in the arena now. In a moment, we shall have a debate on MMO staff. We must leave cross-warranting the appropriate staff of each agency to the relevant organisations to resolve. I am sure that they will need to consider that, and they may want to draw up memoranda of understanding. I want to respond positively to the noble Baroness, and I fully understand what she means. If officers may be patrolling areas that are close to each other, in that respect it clearly makes sense to cross-warrant, and I fully take that point. I am sure that there are some practical reasons why I would not want to stand here and say that every officer of each appropriate organisation should be cross-warranted. We are not just talking about different marine organisations; we are talking about the Environment Agency as well. I am sure that there would be a case for restricting the cross-warranting. Indeed, because in cross-warranting you have to be assured of consistency—as was mentioned in the debate on the previous amendment, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Greenway—it will have to be done carefully. I entirely accept the noble Baroness’s point about the need for consistency, particularly between neighbouring jurisdictions. Amendment A254A agreed.