Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, a government amendment is grouped with this amendment, and I will not attempt to pre-empt that. Clause 53 provides for the delegation of functions relating to marine plans. A direction can be given to delegate the functions by a public body. My concern is that a public body as defined in the Bill includes statutory undertakers. Most statutory undertakers are not public: they are private, albeit subject to particular regulation. I query whether it is proper or appropriate to delegate marine plan functions—preparing a plan, identifying the plan area and so forth—to the private sector, even with the Secretary of State's long-stop powers. That is not to say that a marine plan authority should not be working with or consulting statutory undertakers along with other bodies that fall within the normal definition of a public body: of course they should work together. Statutory undertakers will have a role because they have knowledge and views, but to give them the delegation of functions is quite a different matter. Therefore, my amendment would exclude statutory undertakers from the definition of public bodies used in the clause. I beg to move.