Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, Amendment 19 incorporates the care of archaeological articles found on the seabed among the responsibilities of the Secretary of State. I should explain that I am not a professional archaeologist in any sense. My interest was first aroused when, as a student at Oxford, the all-embracing curriculum of the school of modern history was described in the university statutes as: ""The history of Britain from the beginning to the present day"." My own special study was devoted to more recent history, in particular, the origins of the First World War, which was totally absorbing. However, there was some archaeology involved in the Anglo-Saxon and Roman periods of British history and subsequently I have belonged to the county archaeological societies of the three counties in which I have come to live: Surrey, Sussex and latterly Suffolk, where I have settled permanently on retirement. It so happens that one of my Suffolk neighbours in Orford, Mr Stuart Bacon, is seriously interested in locating treasures under the sea. He actually spent his career in the Royal Air Force, but he has opened a small museum in our village called Suffolk Underwater Studies. Some years ago, he located the wreck of a Spanish warship close inshore, which had got lost on the way home after its defeat in the Spanish Armada. The wreck included a rare 16th century Spanish cannon. With some difficulty, Mr Bacon raised this to the surface and transported it to his museum. It was too large to go through the door, so he chained it securely to the structure and began negotiations with the authorities in London so as to locate a national naval museum to which he could present it. While this was going on, at 7.30 one morning a convoy of official government vehicles arrived with a team who cut the chain and removed the cannon. I thought this to be an extremely rude, even high-handed, action and raised this matter at Question Time in this House on 14 March 2001, at cols. 841-2 of Hansard. The noble Lord, Lord McIntosh, for the Government agreed that the Royal Armouries did send a trailer and cut the chain, but there was no apology. More recently, I have been informed that the Crown Estate is now issuing licences for the extraction of aggregate within the 12-mile territorial limit. The official letter informing of this said: ""Surveys are carried out before dredging but…surveys often miss an ancient wreck"" This seems a somewhat haphazard procedure. I also wish to draw attention to a significant recent development; namely, the discovery of an important British wreck in the Channel. This was evidently HMS "Victory", launched in 1737. It is a major discovery. Previously it had been believed that the ship had come to grief close to the Channel Islands but the remains of the ship lie further west, scattered over a wide area and her fate now lies in the hands of the Disposal Services Authority, part of the Ministry of Defence. The ministry have a contract with an American company, Odyssey, which will dispose of the proceeds and might share some of them with the Ministry of Defence. Odyssey has American shareholders and is registered in New York. The contract should include archaeological supervision by the British Government but I do not know that that has happened. However, these arrangements do not comply with the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which came into force in January 2009. Meanwhile, it seems likely that the fate of the valuable contents may be determined by the American courts. Among the items included in the cargo are apparently four tonnes of gold coins. This is the most important naval wreck to be discovered in recent years. Evidently, it is more important than HMS "Mary Rose", which attracted much public attention a few years ago. For a fuller account of this remarkable event, I refer noble Lords to the current issue of British Archaeology—the issue for May/June—which is published by the Council for British Archaeology. I subscribe to that magazine and have arranged for photocopies of the most important pages to be available in our excellent Library, which is not a subscriber. I think that noble Lords will find it compelling reading, and I strongly recommend that Ministers responsible for the Bill study the article carefully as it will give them much food for thought. In particular, it would appear that the current commercial arrangement with Odyssey may conflict with the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. The amendment in my name is intended to give political responsibility for issues as significant as these to the Minister in charge of the department—that well known if elusive personality, the Secretary of State. I suggest this because I believe that the issues involved are so large that the Minister in charge of the department should play a leading role in reaching decisions. The record to date, which I have cited, suggests that there has been little or no consideration of these issues at the political level. That is what I believe should happen in the future and that is the purpose of my amendment. I suggest that the Government would do well to consider these major issues before proceeding to the last stages of the Bill before us. I trust, therefore, that the Government will take a short period to reconsider the future of the Bill. Pending their reconsideration, I do not propose to press my amendment to a vote at present. I also suggest to the Government that there are other possible ways are proceeding. The first might be to recast the Bill in its entirety so that it concentrates on the issue of coastal paths, which seems to be its main political purpose. The remainder could certainly be put off until another day. We have already had a useful and thorough debate about the footpaths detail, so that would not be wasted. Alternatively, it might be decided to examine the whole issue of underwater treasure more thoroughly. Clearly, this is an important topic which Her Majesty’s Government have not been able to concentrate on so far. I also venture that the creation of the administrative machinery to cope with the Bill in its present form will constitute a burden on the Exchequer which currently it is in no position to absorb. I shall await the Government’s response with keen attention. Meanwhile, I repeat my request that the Minister should study the current issue of the magazine British Archaeology. Evidently, the Government have not had access to it so far. I beg to move.