Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I warmly thank my noble friend Lord Livsey of Talgarth. His comments about Wales will be the shining example that shows the Government what a trick they are missing here. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, because a conversion is probably worth as much as the huge number of us who already thought as we did. She is absolutely right about the evidence of nature bouncing back; that is a good way of putting it. My noble friend Lord Greaves, who supported me, seemed to think that I was dismissive of Defra’s guidance; and perhaps I did not say enough about it. It was extremely useful in spelling out the different categories of ecological significance—high natural and biological diversity, representivity, sensitivity, naturalness and so on—because this gave us a flavour of how Defra sees a marine conservation zone working. I was extremely disappointed when those on the Conservative Front Bench said that they would not support this. They said that it would establish a two-tier system and would be counterproductive. However, in the terrestrial area there are many protective tiers, such as SSSIs and AONBs, that protect the landscape. National parks protect social activities within a special landscape, and the landscape itself. We are used to working with different tiers to protect and conserve. It is not a new concept, and I am astonished that those on the Conservative Front Bench, who have often talked volubly about conservation matters, and even worked with us on the CROW Act to further their aims, are now withdrawing from them in the context of the marine landscape. That is extremely disappointing.