Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I was looking forward to a bit of exercise but the Minister has just persuaded me that we should not have it. I congratulate him on that and thank him for it. If the Government were to look at terrestrial legislation they would see that under planning legislation it is very often written down that appropriate planning authorities, for example, need to be consulted on planning applications. Indeed, parish councils have a right to be consulted on such applications. In the whole of the plan-making process there is a complex system of formal consultation which is set out in the legislation. I accept that we are talking about licences, but I suspect that if we looked at licensing legislation as well we might find that the same things applied. I am not an expert on that, but certainly planning legislation on planning applications, for example, clearly sets out that local authorities are statutory consultees if they are not the authority to which the application has been made. However, I heard what the Minister said and I thank him for it. I hope he can find a way of putting it in the Bill at Third Reading. As I say, local authorities are different in kind from all the other authorities that exist, because they are the democratically elected representatives of the local people. On that basis, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 99B withdrawn.