Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, in moving Amendment 3 I shall speak also to the other government amendments in this group. They are all minor and technical in nature, but they are necessary to improve the clarity of the drafting. I apologise for the number of amendments. The House will recall that our first day in Committee was 12 January, which inhibited the Government from having the amendments ready for Committee over the Christmas Recess. I know that we all look back on those times with great joy. We have tabled the amendments for Report and I apologise for how many there are, but they do not raise issues of principle. Amendments 3 and 4 add new text to paragraph 9 of Schedule 1. The paragraph provides the grounds on which the Secretary of State can suspend or terminate the appointment of the chair, deputy chair or any MMO board member. The form of words that we have added ensures that all appropriate Scottish law on forms of insolvency is included in these grounds. Amendment 26 to Clause 7 is a minor and technical amendment that corrects a reference in this clause to Section 4B of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967. The clause refers to functions that the MMO exercises under Section 4B of that Act, whereas it exercises those functions under Sections 4 and 4A, so the clause should refer to those sections instead. Amendment 27 inserts a reference in Clause 9(3) to the area in which this clause is applicable, which is in relation to the whole or any part of England or the English inshore region. The reason for this is to limit the geographical scope of this transitional provision to that particular area. This is consistent with the other transitional provisions in subsection (2) and is necessary because the Secretary of State’s functions under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 are being transferred to the MMO only in respect of England and the English inshore region. It follows that any application made to the Secretary of State before the commencement of the Bill that is to be treated in future as being made to the MMO should relate only to licences applying in England and the English inshore region. Amendments 28 and 29 to Clauses 9(3) and 10(5) respectively allow applications for licences that have been made but not withdrawn before the licensing functions are transferred to the MMO to be treated as applications made to the MMO after the coming into force of these sections. Amendments 30 to 32 reword Clause 12(3) so that it mirrors the wording of Clause 13(3). As currently drafted, the clause might inadvertently transfer functions relating to Scottish generating stations to the MMO in the future if the existing Executive devolution order is repealed and a new one put in its place because the revocation would return the functions to the Secretary of State. This clause would then transfer them to the MMO before the new Executive devolution order took effect. The amendments are needed to prevent this. Amendments 33 and 34 to Clause 13 make a small change to the wording so as to remove references to "Scottish areas" and the definition of this term. It has been removed because it is not a term used elsewhere in the Bill. Amendments 35 and 37 change Clause 14(3)(a) to exclude people employed by the Scottish or Welsh Administrations from the definition of a person employed in the Civil Service of the state in this clause. The clause is intended only to apply to people employed by the English Administration, but as drafted it inadvertently includes those in Scotland and Wales, and we want to correct that. Amendment 40 is a minor amendment to Clause 18 that would remove the word "marine" so that the drafting is consistent in Chapter 3 of Part 1, in particular Clause 15, which refers to agreements authorising the performance of any "function" of the MMO and not a "marine function". Amendment 52 to Clause 25 leaves out the words, ""provision of such publications or"" in subsection (1) and inserts, ""publication of such documents or the provision of such"." This amendment is needed to achieve consistency of terminology with Clause 25(2). Amendment 53 inserts a new clause after Clause 28. It is needed to allow the MMO to carry on certain prosecutions that have already been started by the Secretary of State, including by the Marine and Fisheries Agency, before the functions are transferred to the MMO. I beg to move.