Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I do not wish to detain the House long on this. I wish to pursue again with the Minister a point which I raised in Committee which relates to the courts’ jurisdiction if a person should wish to challenge relevant documents in relation to the Scottish offshore region. As the Bill stands, it would be possible to raise an action in either the Court of Session or the High Court. I cannot understand, and I am not aware of a precedent, why a matter relating exclusively to Scottish waters—almost certainly an action where the respondent would be Scottish Ministers—would find its way to the High Court when the Court of Session is perfectly competent, both legally and actually, to deal with the matter. I remember when this was dealt with before; the Minister seemed to indicate that it was part of the general overall agreement with Scottish Ministers as to how the Bill would proceed. It struck me as very interesting that Ministers from the Scottish National Party should concede the jurisdiction of the Court of Session to the High Court. We perhaps need a slightly more detailed explanation than that one, which stretches credibility. Nevertheless, stranger things have happened. If a matter relates exclusively to the Scottish offshore region, where the respondents, almost inevitably, would be Scottish Ministers, I cannot see how the High Court could in any way be an appropriate court for that to be heard. By all means, if the matter relates to the English inshore or offshore region, the High Court seems the obvious place. Indeed, if I understand the Bill, such a matter could end up in the Court of Session, which seems to me to be as perverse in the opposite direction. It is quite a simple point, but an important one. Through 300 years since the Act of Union, we have jealously guarded our distinctive legal system and we do not, even by some means not intended for that purpose, want to see it eroded. I beg to move.