Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendment 113ZA, which is included in this group. Before I do so, I would like to express sympathy for the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Young, as a number of your Lordships have done. I presume that the Government are able to include Clause 114(7) in the Bill only because European Community law in the context of MCZs is not as demanding as in the case of land-based SLAs. I turn to my own amendment, which would add a further subsection to Clause 114 as follows: ""In considering whether it is desirable to designate an area as an MCZ, the appropriate authority must take account of all relevant scientific evidence. ‘Evidence’ includes predictions and other opinions resulting from the consideration of evidence by any person"." In promoting this amendment, I respectfully adopt the analysis made in the speech that my noble friend Lord Taylor of Holbeach has just concluded. I just want to underline the real fear that, without an express reference to science in Clause 114, the decision-maker will indeed be susceptible to the pressures to which he rightly alluded. I am puzzled that, whereas the Government felt it appropriate to include a similar—indeed, an identically—worded provision in Clause 2, laying down the general objective to be pursued by the MMO, they nevertheless, for reasons which I am anxious to hear, did not feel it necessary to have the same reference to scientific evidence for the appropriate authority making decisions under Clause 114. The noble Baroness, Lady Young, raised a question about the word "opinions" in my amendment. This matter was referred to in our debate on Clause 2 at this stage of the Bill. For my part, I found the Minister’s explanation as to why "opinions" was appropriate entirely satisfactory. He may well wish to repeat what he said at that stage of the Bill or explain it in a different way. However, scientific evidence can give rise to different opinions about its implications; and that is the framework in which the word appears in the amendment.