Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I welcome the probing nature of my noble friend Lady Hamwee’s amendment, and her reassurance that she does not intend to impede on the devolution settlement. It raises and helps to focus on an issue which arises out of the boundary between the south-west of Scotland and the north-west of England in the Solway Firth. There were amendments in Committee which I and the Government brought forward to address this. Since then I have received representations from Mr Gordon Mann of the Solway Firth Partnership about concerns which the partnership has about the future of marine conservation in the Solway Firth. That partnership was established in the early 1990s in response to the growing issue of integrated coastal zone management. In the Solway Firth a particular need was identified to have well joined-up integrated coastal zone management, not least because of the national boundary that goes though it. That boundary inevitably increases the number of agencies involved, operating under different legal systems north and south of the border, and different cultures north and south of the border can lead to different management arrangements. Therefore, I understand that the partnership has been worth while in bringing people together from the Scottish and English sides of the Solway Firth to identify issues and actions that are necessary to secure an environmentally sustainable future of that sea. The concern now being expressed is that there is no likelihood of sufficient consistency and co-ordination between the MMO, which will be established under this legislation, and the work done by Marine Scotland, which has already been established as an executive agency of the Scottish Government and which will operate under the Marine (Scotland) Bill that is currently before the Scottish Parliament. Assurances have been given, but they have no statutory foundation. It is believed that here is a real need for joint planning. Having been born and brought up in Annan in Dumfriesshire on the Solway Firth, I know only too well that here we have an ecosystem that does not recognise a national boundary. Therefore, it is important that there is some kind of shared responsibility. I understand that under the Scottish Bill, Marine Scotland will have the power to delegate the preparation of a local plan. That power of delegation is not available to the MMO. Defra has responded to representations that there will be an obligation to consult, but that is not believed to be sufficient. The amendment raises the issue of whether there is an interaction between the responsibility of Scottish Ministers and the inshore plan which directly impinges on an English inshore plan. Perhaps the Minister will indicate a willingness to engage with those who have an interest in the ecosystem and the management of the Solway Firth, so that when the Bill arrives in another place further consideration will have been given to identify whether there are sufficient mechanisms in place to address important issues and underpin the work that has been done since the early 1990s in trying to get a co-ordinated approach to coastal management in the Solway Firth.